


The Cabin | Lashton

by xdistorted_cliffordx



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer
Genre: 5 Seconds of Summer - Freeform, 5SOS - Freeform, 5sos fam - Freeform, Adorable, Ashton Irwin - Freeform, Bottom Ashton, Bottom Luke, BoyxBoy, Calum Hood - Freeform, Calum Hood hates Ashton Irwin, Fluff, Frenemies, Gay, Lashton - Freeform, Lashton Hemwin, Liz Hemmings - Freeform, Luke Hemmings & Ashton Irwin Friendship, Luke Hemmings & Calum Hood Friendship, Luke Hemmings - Freeform, Luke Hemmings Loves Ashton Irwin, Luke Hemmings hates Ashton Irwin, M/M, Mama Hemmings, Michael Clifford & Calum Hood Friendship, Michael Clifford & Luke Hemmings Friendship, Michael Clifford - Freeform, Michael Clifford hates Ashton Irwin, Neighbors, Sassy Calum, Sassy Luke, Sassy Michael, Top Ashton, Top Luke, ben hemmings - Freeform, cheesy ending, hemwin, jack hemmings - Freeform, sassy ashton
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-03
Updated: 2016-07-14
Packaged: 2018-05-24 11:14:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 57,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6151857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xdistorted_cliffordx/pseuds/xdistorted_cliffordx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke's family finally bought a lake cabin like Luke had always dreamed they would have. He's always been jealous of schoolmates that would always spend their summers there and brag. But now he could brag about it as well. He has a place to relax and escape reality. It was a douche bag free zone. </p>
<p>At least, until he meets his neighbor Ashton.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, all! It has been a while since I've posted or read anything on this hardy site, so I thought that I would entertain you all by posting some of my ongoing story from Wattpad.   
> I have not yet finished this story on Wattpad and am updating it weekly. But I have enough chapters to give you a good enough idea of it.   
> I will have all 21 (22 after Friday) chapters hopefully posted on here by the time Sunday night hits. If not, I will post a chapter once a day until they're all up!  
> Once again, you can find the same version of this on my Wattpad - 1D_HarryStyles_1D !  
> Enjoy!

Luke sat in the far backseat of the SUV, trying to contain his excitement. He and his family were driving to their newly bought cabin for the first week of the summer. He has always wanted a cabin. It's been his dream for God knows how long and it's finally coming true. Now, he isn't stuck at home in his boring room and doing absolutely nothing. He's stuck at a cabin that's on a lake where he can swim, tan, water ski, and whatever else there is. 

He was also away from the douche bags. This was his douche bag free zone. 

Luke considered himself rather popular in school, but not the jock type. He was the type of person that would talk to anyone and everyone, no matter who they were. That's what made him popular. Though, even if he was nice to everyone, it didn't mean he liked everyone. He actually despised the rich popular kids, or the jock/cheerleader popular kids. They were assholes that didn't care about anyone except themselves and unfortunately, there was a lot of those at his school. There wasn't that many people who were actually generally nice people. And that's why he would only bring his generally nice best friends up here instead of the rich popular kids that thought they were Luke's friends. 

"Mum, are we there yet?" Luke groaned, not being able to contain his excitement for much longer. 

"Almost. There's just a few more miles," Liz told her son. "Our neighbors might be at their cabin. They have a son around your age, I guess."

"That's nice," Luke answered. He knew his mum was going to try and set him up with friends. He didn't need anymore. He would rather be a loner up here. If he wanted to have friends, he would just bring Calum or Michael along.

"Yeah, it is because then you won't be following us around," Ben snorted. 

Luke looked over at him, narrowing his eyes. "What's that suppose to mean?"

"Ben and I can't have a little seventeen year old tagging along with us when we're trying to get the ladies," Jack smirked. "You would ruin our vibe."

"Really? I've been told that I'm pretty cute by older women," Luke said, crossing his arms. "In fact, I think I got Mali's guy friend a girlfriend because I was with."

"Maybe it's because Mali was with and Mali had talked her up," Ben said. "You don't understand girls, little brother. They talk."

"Shut up. I'm not that much younger than you guys. I could get older girls," Luke pouted.

"I'm twenty-three and Jack is twenty-one. You don't need girls our age," Ben laughed.

"Correction; you don't want girls our age," Jack corrected.

"Why?" Luke asked.

"Because they're wild and will corrupt my baby," Liz said, turning around to the three boys.

Another reason that Luke was excited to be let loose up here. He was sick of always being called the baby and being treated like a little kid just because he was however so much younger than his brothers. It made him feel like nobody cared about him and what he did because he was 'little'. They wouldn't listen to him because he was a stupid kid; what does he know? It made Luke really angry sometimes. 

He let his brothers and family talk to each other the rest of the ride there while he just watched at the passing view out the window. They pulled into the driveway and Luke got a smile on his face. He was finally at his second home, away from reality and his normal routine. He couldn't have asked for much more than that. 

After Ben and Jack were out, he pushed his way past them, grabbing the keys that his dad was holding out and ran towards the door. It took him a minute to unlock it, but when he did, he was greeted with the cozy yet large cabin. The sun was shining in the many windows, brightening the empty home up. He went straight to the cushy leather couch and plopped himself right on it. 

"If you think that's where your ass is going to be all week, you've got another thing coming, mister," Liz warned her youngest son. 

"Yeah, yeah. By the way, I call the big bedroom that has the lake window," Luke said once the rest of his family walked inside. 

"What? Why does he get first dibs? The oldest should," Ben argued.

"Because, unlike you two, Luke actually came with us to look at the place when we were going to buy it. He was the only one here, so he gets dibs," Andy said to the two brothers. 

"Don't worry, you guys can have the smaller rooms. It'll be easier to have sex with all these women you're supposedly picking up," Luke chuckled.

"Luke Robert!" Liz said in shock, earning an eye roll from Luke. "Just for that, I'm going to make you haul in my bags from the car too."

"What? I was making a joke!" Luke defended. He couldn't even do that around here.

"I don't care. It was inappropriate," Liz said, crossing her arms. Luke just looked at her, sticking out his bottom lip. "Go, Lucas."

"My name's Luke, mum," Luke groaned, getting up from the couch. 

"Your my son and I will call you what I please," Liz said.

"Why didn't you name me Lucas then?" he asked with a slight chuckle.

"Because that's too common," she answered with a smile.

Luke just rolled his eyes and went back out to the car to get his and Liz's things from the trunk. Although he sometimes hates how his family treats him like a baby, he still loves them to death. He cursed under his breath as he lifted Liz's suitcase out. He swore the woman packs bricks in here because it was so heavy. The weight of it along with his own made it feel like he was dragging in a damn vehicle.

"Oh, Lukey, this is why you're my favorite son," Liz said with a smile on her face as she stood on the porch. 

"I'm only doing this because you're my mother," Luke grumbled, instantly dreading the twenty steps he was going to have to climb to get into the house. "Good God, what do you have in here?"

"Just my essentials," Liz answered.

"What's your essentials? Rocks?" Luke asked breathlessly as he dragged the suitcase slowly up the stairs. 

"That's for me to know and you to find out, sweetheart," she answered with a cheeky tone. 

"Never mind...I don't want to know," Luke said, wheeling the luggage to her when he was at the top.

"Good," she joked, rubbing Luke's back and followed him inside.

He went straight up to his room, ignoring Ben and Jack, who were arguing over FIFA in the living room. As much as he loved the game, he had other plans for this beautiful day and it didn't involve video games yet. Once he was in his bedroom, he threw his lightweight bags onto the neatly made bed and went over to the wall of windows, opening the blinds and let the sunlight fill the dark room. 

Luke stood there, looking out the windows at the lake. It was truly the most beautiful sight he had seen. He couldn't have chosen a better room and his parents couldn't have chosen a better house. If he could still attend his school and live here instead of his actual home, he would. But then it would lose its beauty after awhile and Luke didn't want that. 

He turned away from the windows and went to his luggage on his bed, opening it and pulling out his swim trunks. It's been a long time since he broke out these bad boys and he was excited to get back in the water. He went into the small bathroom that was attached and stripped down so he could get in his shorts. Looking in the mirror, he slightly frowned at his pale and barely there abs, but remembered that he would most likely catch some color today since it was sunny out and that it didn't matter if he was ripped or not. It's not like he was setting out to pick up girls like Ben and Jack were. He was setting out to have a good time. 

Throwing his regular clothes on the bed, he went back down to the living room where Ben and Jack were still playing video games, wasting away the beautiful day. Before Luke could go outside and down to the shore, he remembered he needed his towel.

"Do you guys know where mum put the towels and shit?" Luke asked his brothers with a sigh, knowing that they probably weren't even listening to him.

"Why the hell would we know?" Ben asked, eyes staying on the telly.

"Ask he - wait, what are you doing?" Jack asked.

Luke just looked at him, squinting his eyes. "I'm going swimming...?"

"Why?" Jack asked, perplexed as to why Luke would do such a thing.

"Because for one, it's summer. Two, it's beautiful outside. Three, I have absolutely nothing else to do," Luke answered him. "Unlike you two, I'm going to enjoy the outdoors instead of pretending I'm some amazing virtual soccer player."

"We're better than you," Ben sassed.

"Fuck off," Luke said, rolling his eyes. 

He went out the back door in search of Liz. His dad was at his beloved barbecue, cleaning the already clean machine. Luke scanned the backyard to see if Liz had gone to start putting up the lawn decorations like she had went on about in the car on their way here, but he couldn't see her anywhere.

"Dad, where's mum?" Luke asked him.

"I think she said that she was going out on the dock. What do you need?" Andy wondered.

"My towel," Luke told him.

"How about you go down to the lake and start swimmng and when I'm done here, I'll bring it down to you? I'm thinking about taking a dip myself," Andy told his youngest son. "I mean, unless you're going to be like your brothers and try to pick up girls."

Luke laughed at what his dad said. "No, dad, it's fine. You can come."

"You sure you want your old man cramping your style?" Andy asked him.

\-----

Luke shook his wet hair out of his eyes and looked out at the somewhat crowded lake. The water was beautiful and he could've stayed in there for the rest of the week if he wouldn't turn into a prune. His dad was over by the dock where Liz was sitting and watching them and Luke was over under the shade trees, getting himself out of the hot sun. When he got the water out of his eyes, he looked around the lake and he noticed that he was very close to his neighbors' dock. Luke decided to do a little snooping since that was just the kind of person he was.

Luke noticed that they had both a speedboat and pontoon parked next to the dock. There was also one of those water trampolines tied to it and was tucked next to the speedboat. He felt a pang of jealousy since all his family had was a dock and a shed full of intertubes. He knew it was selfish of him to even think about asking his parents about a boat since they had just dropped however much on the house. 

There was a shed that was up on the shore, but it wasn't nearly big enough for the boats to fit into. Luke tried to think of what could possibly be in there, probably just intertubes and life jackets and all of that shit. He looked over at the dock, seeing that it was newer looking and had some anchor/decorations on the posts. Before he swam farther over to see the rest of the property, he looked back at his parents, seeing that they were happily chatting away with each other. Quickly, he swam over so he was now across the property line. 

The backyard was very well kept up and the house was just as prim. The woman of the house must have been a fan of gardening because there was plenty of blue flowers hanging off of the back deck and random patches of the same flowers throughout the yard. The overall house was three stories and it looked like they lived in a ritzy neighborhood. Luke just rolled his eyes, figuring that they were probably stuck up and their kid that was around Luke's age was probably a popular asshole. He didn't want to have to try and be friends with someone he knew he wouldn't like. He got enough of that back home.

"Luke? Luke!" his mum yelled, getting his attention immediately. He was surprised that they didn't see him, but then again they probably weren't expecting him to be at his neighbors' when they weren't even home.

As quietly and as quickly as he could, he sunk back down underwater and glided back over to his dock, hoping that they wouldn't notice him and start questioning him. Thankfully, the water was mostly clear so he could see where his dad was standing and he wouldn't run into him. When he got just inches away from the man, he popped up, causing Liz to scream.

"Luke! What in hell are you trying to do? Send us into a coronary?" Andy asked, getting an amused smile on his face.

"Well, it's something that I'm good at, so yeah, it was my goal," Luke smirked.

"We thought you got eaten by a shark or something. Where did you float off to?" Liz asked him.

"I was under those trees over there because the sun got too hot," Luke said, half lying. 

They didn't have to know that he was secretly checking out the neighbors' cabin. Knowing his mother, Liz probably already has.

\----


	2. Chapter 2

It had been a very peaceful and wonderful three days so far and Luke had been having fun. At least, up until today because it was pouring rain out and Luke was stuck inside because Liz thinks that he'll magically melt or get sick. So, Luke just sat in his room and watched the telly since his brothers were once again hogging the Xbox.

The sound of the rain actually was kind of relaxing and Luke was getting drowsy. He hadn't gotten much sleep since they had gotten to the cabin because he would stay up late and get up early. Maybe a rainy day was what he needed. He literally had all day to sleep since it would just be muddy and gross outside once the rain stopped.

Deciding to take advantage of it, Luke got out of the chair and crawled into his bed, wrapping himself up in the covers. He shut his eyes and listened to How I Met Your Mother on the telly and the rain splash against the glass.

Just as he was starting to fall into a peaceful sleep, there was obnoxious knocking on his door and then the sound of Liz barging in.

"Were you sleeping, Luke?" Liz wondered.

"It wouldn't matter much now," Luke responded. "What do you need?"

"Well, I just wanted to see why you've been staying locked up here all day. You do have family members that want to do things with you, you know," Liz told him, sitting on the foot of the bed.

Luke just looked at her with a flat expression. "For one, it's raining outside and there's nothing to do. Two, Ben and Jack are hogging the Xbox. Three, I'm tired and want to sleep."

"Well, I can see that it's raining. I may be old, but I'm not stupid. Just because your brothers are addicted to video games, doesn't mean that you have to be. Haven't you been sleeping? Every time I have checked on you, you've been snoring like a pig!" Liz answered.

"Yeah, sort of. I've been staying up late and getting up earlier, so I don't get enough sleep," Luke told her, hoping that she would take the hint and just leave.

"Well, someone needs to contain their excitement and sleep in a little bit. It's summer! You're supposed to sleep until noon!" Liz told him with an amused smile.

"I'm not that kind of person, I guess," Luke chuckled.

"Are you even my son? Did I take home the wrong baby boy from the hospital?! Ben and Jack always have slept until noon or even three! Are you sick, baby?" Liz asked, getting all dramatic on him.

Luke just rolled his eyes, wanting her to stop talking so he could sleep. He loved his mother with every ounce of his heart, but right now, sleep was overtaking his brain. 

"No, I'm not sick. I just want to sleep," Luke chuckled tiredly.

"Okay. Well, I wanted to inform you that our neighbors just arrived. So, when you're finished with your beauty sleep, why don't you go over and introduce yourself?" Liz suggested. 

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Luke groaned, collapsing onto his pillow. 

"Right. You turn into a crabby devil child when sleep deprived," Liz said, getting up from the bed. "Nap well, honey."

"Mmph," Luke said, his words muffled by the pillow.

Once he heard his door close, he got himself wrapped into his comfortable cocoon again and shut his eyes. He focused on the joke that Barney was saying on the telly, quickly drifting off into sleep.

\----

When Luke woke up, it was a bit darker than it had been when he originally fell asleep. He wondered how long he had been napping since it must've been evening, but he didn't really care because he couldn't have done much of anything in the rain anyway. 

Despite there not being a rush for him to get up, he still felt the need to be awake, except he didn't want to leave his warm and cozy bed. It was as if he was waking up for school; he wasn't going to get up until he was dragged out. Well, he never exactly was dragged out of his bed, but Liz had gone to the extremes of dumping cold water on him. 

Luke huffed, rubbing his eyes so he would wake up and slowly got himself up. He felt cold once he was unwrapped from his comforter and wanted to crawl back underneath it, but willed himself not to. He was curious as to what his family was doing anyway. Not that he expected much from his brothers, but maybe Liz and Andy were doing something that would remotely interest him enough to keep him out of the seclusion of his room.

He stumbled out of his room and went towards the living room. He couldn't help but feel confused when he didn't hear the telly on in the living room. Were his brothers not playing the Xbox for once? He took a nap for a few hours and he misses something that should be recorded on the calendar? 

Luke continued to walk through the house, soon realizing that there was nobody inside. He looked out the back window in the kitchen, not seeing anyone on the back deck either. Did his family leave him alone? That was so unlike them since they treated him like a wounded animal and barely ever left him alone. Luke rushed to the front door, looking out to see if the vehicle was gone, but it wasn't. He found that weird. 

He went back out on the back deck to see if they decided to go down on the dock. Nobody was there, so he just stood and tried to brainstorm where they could be. That's when he heard voices. Luke looked in the direction that the voices were coming from and saw Liz through the trees at the neighbors house. Of course she would drag everyone there. 

Luke rolled his eyes and ran down the stairs, running his hand through his bed hair. He made his way through the small path that was cut out in the small trees that separated the two properties. Liz and Andy were standing alongside one of the many flower gardens in the yard with another married couple, laughing about something with the annoying adult laughs. The woman noticed Luke walking towards them and gave him a hesitant smile, causing Liz and Andy to turn around and look at him.

"Well, the dead has risen," Andy joked. Luke just smiled tightly, not really finding Andy's front that funny. 

Luke hated how all adults got that I'm-an-adult front on when they were talking with other people their own age. They acted fake in his eyes and it sickened him, especially when it was his own parents. It wasn't them and he didn't like it.

"Anne, John, this is our youngest son, Luke," Andy introduced, putting his arms on Luke's broad shoulders. "Luke, this is our neighbors, Anne Mare and John Irwin."

"Hi," Luke said politely. 

"How old are you?" Anne asked after she shook Luke's hand. 

"Seventeen," Luke answered.

"Oh! Our son is seventeen as well! He's out in the back with your brothers and our other two. You should go talk to him," Anne encouraged. 

"Yes, why don't you go make friends, Luke? You're going to end up a hermit if you don't socialize," Liz joked, causing the other three to laugh as if it were hysterical.

Luke just forced a smile and walked towards the backyard towards normal conversationalists. When he got around the corner of the house, he saw that Ben and Jack were playing soccer with a boy that looked to be around Luke's age. There were two younger kids, one looking around twelve and the other looking to be around seven, sitting on the hill and watching the guys play. 

Slowly, Luke walked into the backyard, the two younger kids looking at him with curiosity, but not moving from their seats. Luke stopped and watched the three soccer players, figuring that he would make his appearance after they were done with the play. But unfortunately for Luke, Ben was the one to notice him mid-action. 

"Hey, Luke," Ben panted, causing the other two boys to look back at him. 

Jack just gave him a slight nod and the smaller wavy haired boy looked at him confused but curiously. Luke didn't want to be rude and just ask who the hell was playing soccer with them, but the two weren't looking as if they were going to make any effort to introduce them either. 

"Do you mind if I join this game?" Luke asked, thinking it would urge one of them to say words.

"Yeah, sure. You ca- OH! I suppose we need to introduce you before we put you on the same team!" Ben said with a chuckle. He gestured to the slightly shorter boy. "Luke, this is our neighbor, Ashton Irwin. He's your age, plays soccer sometimes, and yeah. He's a cool kid.

"Ashton, this is our dorky younger brother, Luke. He's an idiot, plays soccer, video games, and thinks he's cool but he is not," Jack introduced. 

"Hi," Luke smiled, sticking out his hand. Ashton just looked at it and then hesitantly took it, mumbling a greeting back to him. Luke awkwardly took it back, already getting douche bag vibes from this kid. He just said hi and the kid already hated him for some reason. 

\----

They had been playing soccer for a while. Luke was beginning to get drenched in sweat and was basically playing a 2 on 1 on 1 game since Ashton was a terrible teammate. For some reason, he was being a complete asshole to Luke. He wouldn't listen to him, wouldn't pass him the ball when he was wide open, and he even said douchey things to him. Luke was confused as to why since he had literally just met him. Of course Luke knew that not everyone was going to like him, but he thought that they could at least give him a chance? That's what Ashton wasn't doing. He hated Luke right from the get go and it confused him as to why. Luke was nothing but polite to Ashton when he greeted him. Maybe he was one of those weird people that was offended by a handshake?

"Boys!" 

The four boys looked up and quit playing for a moment to see the adults standing at the top of the hill. It was Liz who had yelled, Luke knew that because she had that cheesy those-are-my-boys smile on her face. Anne had waved the four over to them and they started walking. That's when Luke noticed that the two children who had been watching them were no longer there. He just shrugged, hoping that it was time for him and his brothers to leave. 

"Ugh, you boys smell like a gym locker," John chuckled. 

"We've been playin' hard, John," Jack responded with his usual Jack charm.

"We can see that," Andy said, chuckling as well. 

"I see you and Ashton got acquainted," Liz smiled, a little too wide. 

"Yeah...I guess you could say that," Luke shrugged, trying not to sound rude. Although, he didn't really give a shit if he did since Ashton already had something against him. 

"Well, good. I've invited the Irwin's over for dinner, so why don't you all go back and get cleaned up, yeah?" Liz suggested. 

Luke mentally groaned, not wanting to spend anymore time with Ashton than he already had, but followed his brothers back to the house. He didn't want to get cleaned up for Ashton since the kid was an asshole anyway. He would just as soon smell like his gym shoe while he sat next to the kid as he tried to eat. But it was the good side in him that was making him do what his mum said and get cleaned up. 

"Why the hell do you look so pissed off?" Jack asked with a smirk when they got into the house. 

"I'm not," Luke lied. 

"Oh, really? Then what's with the resting bitch face?" he continued.

"That's my face," Luke said, narrowing his eyes at his older brother.

"So, are you and Ashton going to become the best of friends? Take selfies together, go tanning together, get mani-pedis..." Jack said, mocking a common white girl.

Luke just rolled his eyes. "No. The kid's an ass. I hate him. If anything, I would take a selfie of him getting his feet cut off during a mani-pedi while he burned in the sun," Luke said, turning Jack's joke violent.

"Well, shit," Jack said. "You didn't like him?"

"I was willing to, but he was an asshole to me and acted like I was the dirt under his shoes," Luke told him. "Did you not notice that?" 

"I did, but I thought you guys were just playfully arguing. I guess I was wrong. He was a peach to Ben and I," Jack told him.

"Well, good for you and Ben. Maybe you three can go get mani-pedis and shit together," Luke scoffed, grabbing a towel from the closet before disappearing into his bathroom.

\----


	3. Chapter 3

Luke was sitting on the couch, awaiting the arrival of Sir Douche and his family. He wasn't as excited for it as Liz and Andy wanted him to be. He would have preferred getting his dinner and eating by himself in his room, but Liz wouldn't let him because she refused to believe that Ashton wasn't friendly to Luke. 

"He's not allowed to play FIFA," he grumbled to Ben and Jack as they walked into the living room. 

"Somebody's a little bitch," Ben said.

"He doesn't deserve to even be in my presence, dammit!" Luke said, his voice sharp. 

"Mum, Luke's being an asshole!" Jack yelled into the kitchen. 

Luke just rolled his eyes, not bothering to move from his comfortable spot on the couch. There wasn't any point. Luke was going to be just as rude to Ashton as Ashton was to him earlier. Sure, he'd be nice to Mr. and Mrs. Irwin and what must be his siblings, but he wasn't going to go out of his way to make Ashton feel welcomed when Ashton hated him for some stupid reason. 

There was nothing good on the telly, which made Luke a little bummed since he was stuck watching Ridiculousness, which wasn't his favorite show. It was okay sometimes, but they had this annoying comedian (or that's what he thought he was) as a guest and the man's constant crappy comments annoyed the hell out of Luke. But there was nothing else to turn it to, so he was stuck with listening to the annoying 'comic'. 

There was a knocking on the front door and normally, Luke would've been the good son and got up and answered it with bells on, but knowing who was on the other side of it, he wasn't going to waste his time. He would've it was just John, Anne, and their other two children. 

"Really, Luke? You couldn't get up and answer the door?" Liz asked, sounding disappointed in Luke. 

Luke didn't answer and just shrugged keeping his eyes on the telly. He heard Liz go all perfect adult on the Irwins and he just shook his head. Liz led the family of five through the house, Ashton at the back playing on his phone.

"Everyone is down on the back patio. Ashton, Luke is in the living room watching the telly," Liz told them. Luke was eavesdropping and was mentally giving his mum a kick. 

"Why don't you go talk to Luke? It's just going to be boring adults and I don't think you want to be around your brother and sister," Anne told Ashton. Luke wanted to kick both his mother and Anne out. 

"Um, I guess," Ashton mumbled, not sounding at all thrilled about having to spend the night with Luke. The feeling was mutual.

There was silence and then Luke heard the back door shut. He thought that Ashton had changed his mind and decided to go with his family, but he heard someone walking into the room. Luke narrowed his eyes, not wanting to have Ashton within arms distance of him. 

Ashton walked in front of him and then took a sit on the other side of the couch Luke was sitting on. Luke fought the urge to kick him, but he was really tempted to. Luke didn't bother acknowledging Ashton. He felt bad at first because he knew how awkward Ashton must have felt, but then he remembered that Ashton made him feel the same way, so he lost all sympathy. 

"Um, what show is it?" Ashton suddenly asked.

Luke thought about not answering him, but he didn't want to be too big of dick because his luck Ashton would tell his parents and then his parents would tell Liz and Andy and then Luke would be grounded and he didn't want that. So, instead, he answered with a dull and emotionless tone. "Ridiculousness."

"Oh. What's, erm, that about?" Ashton asked, trying to make conversation to make the tension in the room disappear.

"Watch it and figure it out," Luke snapped.

"What the hell is your problem?" Ashton asked snobbishly, surprising Luke slightly because he thought the asshole would leave him alone. 

"My problem? My problem is that you're an asshole and I don't want to waste my precious time with someone like you," he told him, holding back his more harsh words.

"I didn't do anything to you," Ashton scoffed. 

"Oh, really? Do you not remember earlier when you acted like I was the dirt underneath your shoe? Don't think that I wanted to leave the comforts of my room to see you. Hell, don't think that I even want you here now," Luke snapped. 

Ashton just raised his eyebrow at the boy, surprised that a peasant such as Luke was talking to him like that. "You think that I wanted to come over? No. My parents made me. If I would've gotten the choice, I wouldn't be suffering through this."

"You can leave at any time. Douche bags such as yourself aren't allowed," Luke hissed. Ashton went to say something but Luke glared at him. "Shut the fuck up because your opinion doesn't matter here."

The two boys sat on the different ends of the couch, stewing and despising having to be in each other's presence. Luke didn't understand why Ashton treated him like shit. He was nothing but nice to him and Ashton was an asshole right from the get go. He was hoping that this night would go by fast or that the Irwins would decide to leave early because, despite the rest of the family being nice, he wanted them out. 

\----

Thanks to Liz, Luke got the pleasure to sit right next to Ashton. For some reason, Liz was delusional and thought that the two were friends and she was going to go out of her way to make sure that they got to spend as much time together as humanly possible. If only she knew that someone was probably going to get murdered if she were to keep it up. 

"Ashton, help Andy with getting the food off of the barbecue. Just because this isn't your home doesn't mean you can't help," John instructed Ashton. 

The wavy haired boy rolled his eyes and got up from the table, going up to the deck. Luke couldn't help but smirk, seeing that Ashton got somewhat scolded for not doing anything. Luke set the plates and silverware around the table, occasionally glancing at his dad and Ashton. Andy was trying to make Ashton laugh and it was obvious that he was making himself laugh. Luke admitted that his dad told lame jokes, but they were so lame that they were funny and Luke found it rather rude of Ashton to be a dick and try to act like he wasn't forcing himself to laugh. But at the same time, he was happy that Ashton was suffering. Usually, he wouldn't think like that. But Ashton was a dick, so he was an exception. 

"Alright, who's ready for some of my amazing steaks?" Andy said, coming down the stairs with a plate of meat in his hand. Ashton was following behind him and was rolling his eyes, which kind of pissed Luke off a little bit.

Everyone took their seat and everyone started to dig in, passing around the food. Luke got up from the table to go grab a refill of lemonade from the smaller table behind Liz. When he turned to go back to his chair, he saw that Ashton had Liz's homemade cream corn and was making a very apparent disgusted face as he looked at it. That also pissed Luke off because Ashton was just being rude. Sure, he understood if the kid didn't like corn, but he didn't have to make it obvious. 

Luke sat down, trying his best to ignore Ashton while he ate his meal. It was kind of hard though when Ashton would go out of his way to continuously hit Luke's elbow, as if he was trying to piss Luke off. Because in that case, it was working. 

"Oh, Luke! You haven't even been introduced to our two younger ones, have you?" Anne asked Luke with bright eyes.

"No," Luke responded with a tight smile. 

"Well, our daughter is Lauren, she's thirteen. And our youngest son is Harry, who is ten," Anne introduced the two younger kids, who both smiled with closed mouths as Luke gave them both a small wave. "So, Luke, what do you want to do after school?"

"I'm not quite sure yet. I haven't really decided what I'm going to major in, but hopefully the soccer playing will pan out and I'll be a professional athlete," Luke laughed, causing a few chuckles.

"I wish luck with that. Do you play often?" John asked.

"Yeah. I didn't make it onto the school team, but I play a lot with a few friends and Ben, Jack, and my dad," Luke told him.

"Yeah. You suck, that's why," Ashton mumbled under his breath so only Luke could hear him.

"Well, that's because I was playing when I had just woken up," Luke said, a tight and forced smile on his face. 

"You must take a lot of naps then," Ashton scoffed. 

"Ashton Fletcher, you know better than that! You're setting a terrible example for your siblings. Apologize," Anne scolded. Luke fought the urge to smile at Ashton getting in trouble.

"Why would I apologize? I didn't say anything mean. I just assumed that he took a lot of naps," Ashton shrugged, earning a disappointed look from Anne. 

"You implied that he wasn't a very good player. Apologize, Ashton," Anne sneered, clearly upset with Ashton. 

Ashton just shrugged and ignored her request. Luke didn't expect for him to since the kid was just a natural born asshole. But he did wish that he would be there when the Irwins got home to see Ashton get an ass chewing. 

\----

Liz and Andy had insisted on the Irwins staying for after dinner drinks, much to Ashton and Luke's demise. They didn't want to have to be around each other longer than they had to be, but their parents were doing everything to crush their dreams. Ben and Jack had offered to play another 2-on-2 game of soccer with them, even if Ashton had insulted his game play. Thankfully, Ashton and Luke weren't on the same team again and Luke was instead on a team with Ben and Ashton was with Jack. 

Ben and Luke played well together. At family gatherings when they decided to play a game of soccer, their relatives would always refer to Luke and Ben as the dream team. The two had similar strategies when it came to sports and when they were on the same team, they always had the better team and usually won. It was a bit of a fight, but not as much since the two were always in sync with each other. However, if they played against each other, it was like the FIFA World Cup final. 

But since Ashton had it out for Luke, he was making it hard for Ben and Luke to be the dream team. If it were an actual game of professional soccer, than there would be so many penalties against Ashton that he would have been thrown out of the game. He was doing everything in his power to try and make Luke fail or hurt himself. Luke could've told Ben, but he knew that Ben would just say that Luke was exaggerating because he didn't like him. 

It was actually angering Luke that Ben or Jack or one of the adults weren't noticing what was happening. He actually didn't expect the adults to because they were too busy glamorizing themselves and their lives to impress each other, but he expected one or both of his brothers to see what was going on since Luke was the one with the ball and soccer players usually kept their eyes on that. But they weren't noticing. They were probably too busy plotting against one another. 

As Luke fumed and dribbled the ball down the 'field', Ashton decided to play dirty and he caught up to Luke, nonchalantly sticking his foot out in front of Luke's calf, causing the boy to trip over his foot and then the ball and then tumbled down onto his knee. 

"Fuck!" Luke screamed, falling onto his side as he pulled his leg to his chest. 

Ben squatted next to him. "Luke, are you okay? What's wrong? What hurts?" 

"M-My knee," Luke cringed, trying to unbend his leg, but it hurt too much. 

"What happened?!" Liz asked, frantic. 

"He tripped over the ball and fell down onto his knee," Ben told her. 

Liz got down next to her son, worried if her youngest son was going to be okay. "Luke, baby, tell me how bad it hurts."

"It hurts fucking bad!" Luke swore, trying not to cry at the pain, but he couldn't help it anymore. "It's because of Ashton!" 

Everyone was gathered around Luke and they all looked at Ashton, who was standing back and away from Luke. He didn't feel guilty for hurting Luke, he actually felt slightly accomplished. There was no way that he could've hurt him that bad. It was probably just a sprain and he was egging it out to make Ashton look like the bad guy. 

"He tripped over my foot, but it was by accident. I didn't try to trip him," Ashton lied, seeing that Luke was glaring at him. 

Ben, Jack, and Andy helped get Luke to his feet. He used Ben and Jack as his crutches and he kept his injured leg curled up. Before they started to make their way into the house, Luke looked at Ashton with narrowed eyes. 

"Fuck you, Irwin."

\----


	4. Chapter 4

Thanks to Ashton, Luke was stuck on the couch for the next two days because Liz had scheduled a doctor's appointment for him. Luke knew that his foot wasn't broken, but he knew that he had a pretty bad sprain. He wished that Liz would be trustworthy enough to go to the hospital that was in the next town, but she insisted that Luke had to see his normal doctor because she refused to trust anyone else.  

He wasn't very happy to say the least. It was beautiful weather outside and he had planned on being in it, but he couldn't because of Ashton's douche baggery. Everyone refused to believe that Ashton had done it on purpose, but Luke knew that he did and that pissed Luke off beyond repair. Another thing was that Liz had continued asking Luke if he wanted Ashton to come over and keep him company, which he always declined with a "Are you high?" and Liz didn't appreciate that. She didn't seem to understand that Luke and Ashton hated each other. 

Today, Andy had forced him to get out of his bed and move to the couch. He didn't want to because his room had a better view and everyone left him alone. The only highlight was that there was food and the Xbox was out there. Nothing else. 

"Hey, cripple," Jack said, plopping his ass down on the other end of the couch near Luke's feet. 

"What do you want?" Luke asked, figuring that he wanted something since he never voluntarily chooses to be with me. 

"I can't hang out with my little brother without wanting something?" Jack asked, a little more chipper than he should be. 

"Usually not," Luke responded, making Jack purse his lips and narrow his eyes. "So, what do you want?" 

"I can't believe that you would think that I wouldn't want to spend my valuable time with you! I feel so hurt!" he said, acting all dramatic. Luke just rolled his eyes, annoyed.

"I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid," Luke told him. "Cut the dramatic shit and tell me what you want."

Jack rolled his eyes, annoyed that he couldn't even get Luke to lighten up a little bit. "Ben and I met some girls and we invited them over tonight and we need you to move your ass and make yourself scarce in your bedroom. It could get rated R and you're, like, ten."

"I'm seventeen, thank you very much. What about mum and dad?" Luke asked. 

"They're going next door for dinner and they said that it would be okay since they would be out late," he told me. "So, you can either stay in your room or go with them and have the time of your life with the adults."

"I was planning to spend my life in my room anyway," Luke scoffed. 

"Great! They'll be over in an hour, so start crawling," Jack suggested, getting off of the couch and going back outside to where Luke assumed Ben was.

Luke shook his head, not really wanting to move. He didn't like the fact that Ben and Jack could push him around and tell him that he had to spend the night in his room (even if would be anyway), especially when he was injured. It shouldn't matter that they're older and had a little authority over him; it was his parents house-cabin thing! 

He facepalmed, knowing that he was just crabby and needed something to bitch about.

Figuring that he might as well escape to his room now, Luke pushed himself up onto his one good leg. He knew that Liz would have a royal fit if she knew that he was going there all by himself. She didn't want him to end up breaking anything, but Luke knew that he wasn't going to and that Liz was just being the annoying overprotective mother. All he had to do was hop on one leg and he would be good. 

After about ten minutes of strategic hopping and almost falling, Luke was finally in his room on his bed. He looked out his window, seeing that Andy was outside laughing about something with Mr. Irwin. Luke grimaced. He liked Mr. and Mrs. Irwin, but he didn't like how they were becoming such good friends with them because that would mean they would become those neighbors who felt the need to have to do everything together and that would mean spending more time than he wanted to with the ankle snapper. 

He wasn't for that at all. 

But there was no way that his parents would listen to him. They were delusional and believed that Luke and Ashton were just as good of friends as they were with his parents. They didn't want to believe that two people just could not get along and that made him a bit miffed. They thought that Luke and Ashton were the best of friends, even after Ashton purposely injured him. But God forbid he would ever be so rude as to purposely hurt Luke! Ashton was just a pure angel! Yeah, from Hell. 

Luke huffed, falling back onto his bed. He really was crabby. 

After a moment, he scooted back up on his bed so he was more comfortable and then turned his telly on, finding something to watch. He was tempted to get his dad to move the Xbox into his room so he wouldn't have to be bored trying to find something to watch. He could build up his FIFA team or finally open that Call of Duty game that Michael got him for Christmas a few months back. But until his dad would come into the house, he was stuck watching Catfish, which wasn't that terrible of a show. It could be worse. Like Desperate Housewives worse.

\----

"Luke? Luke! When did you get in here?!" Liz shouted, waking Luke up from his light nap. This is why she was his alarm clock during school.

"I don't know, a while ago?" Luke grumbled, rubbing his half opened eyes. 

"Did anyone help you?" Liz questioned. 

"No. I came in by myself because Jack told me that he and Ben were having women over and I needed to make myself scarce," Luke told her, not feeling bad for throwing him under the bus. 

"Luke! You know that you don't move without someone there to help you! I mean, I'm not saying that you shouldn't listen to your brothers, but when they tell you to put yourself in physical danger, you don't listen to them!" Liz scolded. He knew that he would somehow become the bad guy, even if there really wasn't a bad guy in this case. 

"Mum, I'm fine. I didn't hurt myself and I'm comfortable on my bed for the night. I'll just ignore them. But can you get dad in here? In order to ignore them, I need my Xbox," I told her, causing her straight and motherly expression to turn into a half hearted laugh. 

"Yes, I will go get your father," she said with a smile. 

Liz closed his door again and Luke took the time to wake himself up a little more. He looked down at his injured foot, seeing that it was very obviously swollen. It hurt a little bit, but he wasn't in agonizing pain. It was just enough to cause him a little ache and be a pain in the ass to where he couldn't put weight on it. 

"You needed me? Your mum said it was important," Andy said, coming into Luke's room. 

"Yeah, can you move the Xbox in here so I don't have to suffer with terrible television?" Luke asked, giving him a toothy smile like the emoji.

Andy took a moment, acting like he was thinking about it and was going to say no, but he let out a sigh. "Yeah, I guess I could."

"Thank you, father dearest," Luke thanked as Andy walked out of the room. 

Luke went back to watching the ongoing Catfish marathon and a few minutes later, Andy came back with the game console in his arms. The man silently went to work setting it up and Luke continued to watch the telly. It didn't take Andy long to set it up, so when he was finished, he went over to the side of Luke's bed, getting down on one knee and extended his arm out with the controller in hand, offering it to Luke like a prince offered his hand to a princess. 

"Why, thank you, my noble father," Luke thanked him, chuckling.

"You're welcome, my dearest son. For you deserve the power to control the world of FIFA and dominate with the finest ensemble in the land," Andy said, going all Shakespearean English on his ass. The two laughed for a few minutes and then Andy looked down at the injured boy. "Do you want to come with you mum and I to the Irwins? Keep Ashton company? It would be more eventful than being locked up in here."

"Ashton's the reason I am locked up in here. Plus, I'd rather not risk another one of my important limbs being injured," Luke said. His dad seemed to understand that Luke didn't like Ashton as much as Liz thought he did, but he still assumed that they were some sort of friends. 

"Alright, suit yourself. But if you want to, just shoot me or one of your brothers a text and we'll help you," Andy said, walking towards the door.

"I'll keep that in mind," Luke said with a very forced smile. He didn't know how to spell out 'I don't like Ashton Irwin' any more than he had already. 

Andy left the room and Luke grabbed his remote, hitting the input button to get to the Xbox screen. It was then that he had an idea and he realized that he didn't have to suffer by himself tonight. He grabbed his headset from the nightstand drawer and then grabbed his phone, sending a group text to Michael and Calum. 

_[To: Mikey, Calpal]_

_Are you guys being social tonight?????_

_\----_

"I totally just shot you in the ass!" Luke laughed into the headset. 

_"You're an asshole, Hemmings,"_ his best friend Michael said, trying to make himself sound pissed. _"When are you coming home? I need to make a plan to when I can beat your ass."_

"I'm afraid that I am already crippled," Luke told him.

_"What? How? Did you trip over your shoe laces again?"_ Calum asked, causing the three of them to chuckle.

"No, actually, my douche bag neighbor did it. I was playing soccer with him and my brothers and he purposely made it so I tripped over his foot and I sprained it pretty badly, I think. My mum made a doctor's appointment for Friday morning, so I imagine that I'll be coming home some time tomorrow," Luke told them.

_"Whenever and if we ever get to meet this douche bag neighbor, Calum and I are going to beat his ass into next week,"_ Michael said, trying to make himself sound all tough. 

"I wouldn't complain if you guys beat him so his family would move the fuck out," Luke snorted. "Hell, maybe my parents would let you come back with us."

_"Yeah, yeah! Ask them! We need to show this ass wipe that he's going to pay hell if he messes with you,"_ Calum said. 

_"Do it! I know my dad will say yes because he keeps telling me I need to get out of the house and have a social life,"_ Michael said. 

"I will, I will. They're actually over at the asshole's now, so I have to wait until they get back because I don't want to have to see him when I don't have to," Luke told them.

He was happy that he would get his friends here. He didn't want to deal with Ashton alone.

\---- 


	5. Chapter 5

They had finally arrived into town and Luke could honestly say that he didn't miss it that much. The only things he missed were his house, his friends, and his relatives. That's about it. He had talked to his mum and dad about Calum and Michael coming back with them and they said that it was okay, so Luke was pretty excited about that. 

The car ride was pretty quiet since Ben and Jack had stayed at the cabin because they didn't want to spend however long on the road and then sitting in the waiting room of a doctor's office. It didn't really bother Luke, but he did feel a little lost with them however many hours away when usually they were just minutes. 

"Sweetie, if they have to do surgery, we're going to do it, okay?" Liz told him softly. 

Luke just rolled his eyes, knowing that he wasn't going to have surgery. "Mum, it's probably just a sprain. I'll be fine." 

"You don't know, honey. If it isn't a sprain, we just want you to get fixed so it doesn't get any worse," Liz said. 

Luke didn't respond. He hated that she wouldn't listen to him and just treated him like a baby who didn't know anything about what or how he was feeling. It honestly aggravated him to the nth degree. 

Andy pulled into the rather full hospital parking lot, driving in hopes that he would be able to find a close spot so Luke wouldn't have to hop very far. Michael had had a sprained ankle a few years ago and he had gotten crutches and was able to maneuver around on his own. That's the part Luke was looking forward to. As much as he appreciated his family members helping him out, he was somewhat of an independent person. He didn't want to have to depend on them when it wasn't necessary. It drove him insane. 

Sadly, Andy had gotten a parking spot that was halfway down from the door. Luke mentally groaned, knowing that his leg was going to be cramping from the intense amount of hopping he was going to be doing. He just wanted to call the nurses' station and have them run him out a set of crutches or a walker or a damn wheelchair. 

Luke opened the door after his dad had gotten out. He looked up at the man with a half smile. "You wouldn't be against carrying me, would you?"

"I mean, I wouldn't be against it. Do you want me to?" Andy asked. Luke was actually surprised his dad would agree to it. 

"Yes. Please. I don't want to deal with leg cramps," Luke said gratefully. 

"Alright. Grab hold of my neck," Andy instructed.

Luke did as told and his dad lifted him out of the car, kicking the door shut behind him. Liz was looking at them with an amused yet confused expression, obviously not expecting for her husband to be carrying her crippled son. They were quiet as Andy carried Luke bridal style into the hospital, earning a few odd looks from other patients. Luke didn't care what they thought. He was injured and if they were too stupid to realize that, then they could go screw themselves. 

Andy continued to carry him to the reception desk, the secretary giving them a smile of adoration. Liz got him checked in and the woman directed them to go to the left waiting room. Andy carried Luke over and Liz followed, trying not to look embarrassed by them. 

"Where would you like to sit?" Andy asked Luke. 

"Um, the bench seat," Luke said, figuring that was the easiest for him to chill on for however long. 

Andy put him down on the empty bench and Luke attempted to make himself comfortable, which was difficult since hospital chairs were the most uncomfortable things to ever inhabit the earth. No matter how hard he tried, he would always have the wooden arm digging into his back. He wanted to tell the CEO or owner or whatever of the building to invest in comfortable recliners or something other than these pieces of shit. 

\----

Liz was starting to drive Luke nuts when they told him that they wanted to do X-rays. It was just to make sure that it was a sprain and that they didn't misdiagnose. But like he expected, Liz was going off the deep end, saying how he would need to have surgery and he was going to be laid up for the summer and yada yada yada. Luke could tell that it was driving his dad nuts too because he could see the man biting his tongue. 

"Alright. Liz, Andy, I'm going to ask that you two wait out here in this waiting room while we take the X-rays of Luke's foot," the nurse said. "Don't worry, Mrs. Hemmings. I can assure you that it is most likely a sprain and nothing else."

He was finally in a wheelchair and the nurse wheeled him into a small room to get changed into one of the gowns that was laid out on the bed. He wasn't comfortable that he would have to go around in a dress. 

"Um, it's just an X-ray on my foot. Why do I have to wear a gown?" he asked the young nurse.

"Well, it's under protocol, so it's required. I understand that you're wearing shorts and it would get done faster, but I want to keep my job and I'm not in the mood to get yelled at by my boss," she shrugged.

"Ugh, okay," he groaned, yanking the gown from the chair. 

"I'll leave you in the chair to change and when you're done, just press the red button on the wall for me to come get you," she instructed, leaving the room. 

Luke striped off his clothes and slipped on the rough feeling gown, not bothering to struggle with tying it in the back. He set his clothes onto the bed and then pushed himself over to push the button. He just wanted to get this over with so he could go back to the cabin with Michael and Calum and have them torment Ashton. Not as payback or anything. 

\----

"It's just a sprain then?" Liz asked.

"Yes. Luke is perfectly fine. I would ice it every two to four hours for a little while longer. It should start to be feeling better and you should be able to walk on it within the next day or two. But you're not allowed to be playing soccer or running on it for about a few weeks yet. It needs to heal properly," the technician told them. "Until then, I will give you a crutch to maneuver around on. Just be sure to return it when you're finished with it."

The technician bid them goodbye and then they followed the nurse out to the pharmacy that was down the hallway from the lab. Surprisingly, Luke had never been in the little store. It was like a very very miniature Walgreens, complete with a little cafe. He looked at the brownie options while standing at the crutches, too distracted to pick one out, so Andy gave him a tap on the shoulder. 

"Right, sorry. Can I get a brownie though? You know, in celebration for not having a broken foot?" Luke asked with a small smile. 

Andy rolled his eyes. "Figure out what crutch fits you best and then we'll talk."

It took all of two minutes until Luke found one. He hobbled behind his dad to give the clerk the rental papers and his mum went over to the cafe to figure out what kind of latte she wanted. While waiting, Luke texted Michael and Calum, telling the two to be ready within the next twenty minutes. 

"Did you figure out what kind of brownie you want?" Andy asked, shoving his wallet into his pocket. 

Luke hobbled as fast as he could to the other side of the store to the cafe, going right to the dessert display shelves. The top two shelves looked like a chocolate heaven with the brownies that lined it. It was hard for Luke, the chocolate lover to choose. 

"I want triple fudge," Luke told the clerk. 

"You're not going to get us any?" 

Luke twisted around, seeing that Michael and Calum were standing in the entrance of the store. He felt a smile spread on his face. The two boys walked in so Luke wouldn't have to stumble over to them.

"What are you doing here?!" Luke asked.

"Liz told my mum to drop me and Michael off so we could get to the cabin faster. You know, we want to meet Satan's spawn before he descends back into Hell," Calum chuckled. 

"I can't believe you two are so excited to meet him. The thing is, he'll probably love you guys like he loves my brothers. He just has it out for me," Luke said, rolling his eyes. 

"Well, we'll make it so he doesn't love us. Like TP his place or put his mattress in the lake or something," Michael said.

"Two of the most common pranks. Way to be original, Michael," Luke laughed. "We'll come up with something. Something that will make him hide in fear when he sees us."

This next week was going to be quite fun if you asked Luke.

\----


	6. Chapter 6

"This place is like paradise. Except there isn't any bitches here. Where are the women?" Michael asked, wandering around Luke's property, completely amazed by it. 

"The only women you'll find lurking around here are my mum and Mrs. Irwin from next door. Maybe Ashton's sister, but she doesn't leave the house much," Luke told him.

"Oh, bitch boy has a sister? Maybe she'd be interested in meeting the Clifficonda while we beat on her brother," Michael said with raised eyebrows. Luke couldn't help but burst out laughing, causing both Michael and Calum to look at him as if he was insane. "What?" 

"His sister is, like, twelve," Luke laughed. 

Michael's face turned beat red, obviously embarrassed. He then shut up and took a seat next to a laughing Luke and Calum, who was trying his hardest not to laugh. It took a few minutes for the two to calm down from Michael's little perv action, but when they did, the three were pretty silent. 

"So, when do we get to meet this asshole that broke your foot?" Calum asked, trying to change the subject, but was really just setting Michael up for more harassment. 

"My mum and dad said that we were going to have a bonfire with them tonight over here, so Michael can meet his toddler girlfriend and you and I can beat on Ashton," Luke told them, smirking at Michael. 

"How was I supposed to know that she was twelve?! I'm not telepathic or psychic or whatever the fuck you call it!" Michael defended, still embarrassed. 

"Oh, Michael, you horny old bastard," Calum joked. 

Before they could continue their conversation about Ashton and the bonfire tonight, Jack came out the backdoor with a giggling blonde bimbo at his side. She was obviously one of Jack's one night stands being that her hair was slightly messy, her makeup smeared, and she didn't have any other clothes with her. It was pretty obvious that the two of them had just woken up as well.

"Speaking of horny old bastards," Luke said, catching the attention of Jack and the blonde. 

"Shut up, Luke," Jack grumbled in his morning voice. 

"Oh, is that your little brother?!" the blonde asked, prancing over to Luke. She was an American and her voice was an annoying high pitch and she sounded like a dumber version of the Kardashians. 

"Yeah, unfortunately," Jack answered. 

She started to pinch Luke's cheeks and play with the hair that was sticking out of his snapback. Calum was silently laughing at what was happening and Michael was very obviously checking her out even though he never had a chance or well, standards. 

"He's so cute! How old did you say he was?" she asked. 

"He's seventeen," Jack answered, huffing in annoyance. 

"He's such a little baby! Aw, can I have him?" she asked Jack. Jack just rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to say something, but Michael beat him to it. 

"You can't have him, but you can sure as hell have me," Michael said, raising his hand and his eyes filled with lust. The boy was probably harder than a rock just sitting there. 

"Aw, aren't you just a silly little cutie?" she giggled, patting Michael's snapback covered head.

"Come on, Whitney. We don't want them to infect us with dumbassery anymore than they have already," Jack grumbled.

Whitney bounded back to Jack and Jack walked with her down to the woods on the hidden path he had went on about a few days ago. Michael was watching her walk down the yard - well, watching her ass - with his mouth dropped wide open. Calum and Luke just found it how girl crazy Michael was, especially when he tried to flirt with them. He was honestly just a hopeless cause when it came to women. 

"Mikey, you're drooling," Calum said. 

"What? Huh?" Michael said, quickly wiping around his mouth with both hands and then glared at Calum when he realized that he didn't have any drool. "You sir, are an asshole."

"Why, thank you," Calum chuckled. 

\----

It was starting to get dark outside and Liz was pacing around the house, shouting about lost hot dogs. The Irwins were going to be over any minute and Andy was telling Michael and Calum to light a fire under their asses and get firewood for him to start the fire. Luke was stuck inside the house, finalizing the slight brainstorm that he and his two best friends had come up with to torment Ashton. It wasn't cool to just attack him like that, but Ashton wasn't a very cool person, so Luke didn't feel any bit bad about it. He would just have to live with the consequences if his parents found out. 

Luke hobbled out of the bathroom, seeing that Jack was sitting at the breakfast bar, sipping on a beer. "Hey, crippled."

"Hi. Where's your lovely blonde friend that I met today?" Luke asked with a smirk.

Jack rolled his eyes. "She was too dumb to carry on a relationship with. Perfect one night stand material."

"Aw, but she was nice. She was actually the smartest one you've brought home," Luke said, faking sadness. If Jack wouldn't have been a shallow jackass and actually did start a relationship with Whitney, Luke would've just teased him behind his back because well, Whitney wasn't the brightest bulb on the tree. 

But just as Luke said that, a brunette girl walked into the room, acting all seductive towards Jack. No wonder he liked her. "I hope you didn't miss me too much."

"How could I not miss a smoking hot girl like you?" Jack flirted. 

Luke let out a fake gag and the girl's eyes shot to him, narrowing in disgust. "Who's the toddler?" 

"Funny, I was about to ask who the old hag was," Luke said with a very fake smile. The bitch's mouth dropped open. 

"Excuse me, little boy, but who do you think you are talking to me like that?" she asked, pissed at his comment. 

"And who do think you are being sixty years old and trying to get my brother in your pants? That's what I would call a slut. Especially one that wears a dress that looks like it's made of latex and is barely long enough to cover your hideous cellulite. My best friend's mum works for a plastic surgeon. I could get you the number," Luke insulted. 

"Dammit, Jack! Ground him or I'm leaving!" she yelled.

"I can't ground the little fucker! He's not my kid!" he defended.

"Oh, yeah, did Jack tell you about the lovely girl he took home last night? She was really sweet. It's a shame a old hag with cellulite like you replaced her," Luke continued, enjoying how riled she was getting. 

"Fuck you, Jack! Fuck you and your family!" she spat and then stormed out the front door. 

Luke had expected for Jack to yell at him for scaring away his poor choice of a date, but instead he started laughing like an idiot. It surprised Luke actually. 

"Thank you," Jack said once his small bout of hysterics calmed down. 

"For what?" he asked.

"For getting rid of that bitch. She was so annoying and bitchy and I just wanted to slit her throat with her God damn heel," Jack said, the both of them now laughing. 

"You really need to get a better taste in women or something. There's a lot more than stupid uni-age bimbos with nice tits and asses out there," Luke told him.

"I know...but none of them like me because they've pinned me as the party animal man whore," Jack admitted. 

"You'll find her," Luke said with a smile. 

\----

"It's about time you got here. That asshole keeps eyeing us like we're food," Michael whispered in my ear. 

"He's probably planning your murder or something," Calum said. 

"It wouldn't surprise me," Luke shrugged. 

Michael, Luke, and Calum were on one side of the bonfire, Ashton across from them, and Ben and Jack were on another side. Thankfully, the parents hadn't come over and awed about Michael and Calum and how all four of them were going to be the best of friends when Michael and Calum already couldn't stand Ashton because of what he did to Luke. 

"So, are we going to start our plan tonight?" Michael asked, antsy about it. 

"Yes, eventually," Luke confirmed. 

"When?" he asked.

"I don't know. Wait for a little bit, I guess. Until murder plotting is over," Luke said. 

"He better hurry the fuck up then."

\----


	7. Chapter 7

"Hey, you guys should go get some more wood," Luke told Michael and Calum, signaling that their plan should begin. 

They had it planned out pretty good, at least to them anyway. It was going to get back at Ashton for tripping Luke and also show him who he's messing with. It was Luke's goal to make himself Ashton's worst nightmare. 

"Alright," Michael sighed. 

"Hey, Ashton, you want to help us get some wood?" Calum offered, being the nicer one out of the three. Also, Luke knew that Ashton wouldn't listen to him. "Please? We could use the help since we're little weaklings."

"I guess so," Ashton grumbled. 

Ashton got up from his chair and the other two boys waited for him so they could all go off together. After Ashton slowly walked over to them, Calum and Michael made sure that the bitch boy was in the middle. That way, he was somewhat trapped so he couldn't run. After they made sure they were out of earshot, Michael and Calum nodded to each other and they set their plan in motion.

"So, we hear that you crippled our best friend, Luke," Calum started, catching Ashton a bit off guard, but he wasn't about to show it. 

"That's a pretty dick move, eh?" Michael added. 

"I didn't try to. He just didn't see my foo-" Ashton started but was cut off. 

"Bullshit," Michael called. "Luke told us about you and how you've been treating him."

"What has Luke ever done to you?" Calum asked. "I'm sure that he was nothing but friendly when he first met your sorry ass."

"Why is it any of your business? If you're going to try and intimidate me because Luke's too big of a pussy to do it himself, your plan is failing. You two are about as scary as two flamboyant gay men," Ashton scoffed. "Oh, wait, that's what you are." 

Michael felt his anger rise and he stopped while the other two boys kept walking. Calum noticed that it was only him and Ashton walking, so he stopped and turned around along with Ashton, who had a conniving smirk on his face. 

"What? Did I hurt the little pussy boy's feelings?" Ashton taunted.

"If you were smart, you'd stop," Calum warned as he looked at his best friend, who's eyes were going from all green to mostly pupil real quick. 

"Please, like he's going to do anything to me. He's all talk, no balls," Ashton said arrogantly. "I mean, judging by those jeans, you probably have a vagina." 

Michael snapped stepping forward and shoved Ashton rather forcefully, making him rub his shoulder where Michael's hand had made contact. "What the fuck, dude?" 

"What the fuck, dude?! You wonder why in fuck I fucking shove you after you say that shit?! You must be fucking stupid!" Michael hissed through gritted teeth. 

"Don't start foaming at the mouth, Jesus. And you call me stupid," Ashton snorted. 

Michael took another step forward and pushed Ashton so hard that he fell to the ground. Michael collapsed down onto his knees and started punching him in the face as hard as he could. He heard Calum yelling at him to stop, but he wasn't listening. The only thing Michael could see was red and he kept getting angrier and angrier at Ashton, even though the little shit wasn't saying anything to him. More like he didn't have a choice because Michael's fists were meeting his jaw on both sides. 

After he got a few more pretty good punches in, he was being pulled off of Ashton. Michael's arm were pinned behind his back by the two people who had peeled him off of the boy on the ground. Jack showed up in Michael's vision as the man helped pick Ashton up. Whoever was holding Michael back gripped tighter, in hopes that Michael wouldn't escape and start beating Ashton again. 

"What the fuck, Michael?!" Ben yelled at him. "Do you see him?! His nose is fucking broken!" 

"Ben, shut up. We can deal with _him_ later," Jack hissed. 

\----

After the bonfire was ruined, Liz had Luke, Calum, and Michael all sit down on the couch to get to the bottom of the beating and find out what the hell went through Michael's head. Michael had thankfully calmed down. Calum was sitting there, quietly twiddling his thumbs. Luke sat on the couch, not even fully understanding why he had to be involved when he was innocently sitting by the fire with his brothers while his friends and Ashton had went to get firewood. 

"What the hell was that about, Michael?!" Liz yelled. "Do you know what you did to that poor boy?!" 

Michael just sat there and then shook his head, actually looking intimidated for once. Liz stepped in front of the three boys, looking as pissed as ever. "You broke that boys nose and most likely gave him a concussion! Do you want to tell me what the hell pushed you to do that?!" 

None of the boys answered. They all just sat in silence, afraid that if they said anything that they would be thrown out the window. Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted by Andy walking into the room. The three would be lying if they said that they didn't want to go into fetal position in a corner and cry. 

"Liz, calm down. You don't need to yell. That's not going to get him to respond to you," Andy said, wrapping an arm around his tense wife. "Settle down before you talk to him if you want answers."

The way that Andy was talking surprised the three boys. They had expected him to give them the wrath of Hell too, but he was actually being calm for once. Maybe Michael had scared him and Andy didn't want a broken nose and concussion. 

Liz and Andy sat down on the portable ottoman and looked at the three boys, probably looking for some reason to yell at all three of them when Luke was for the most part innocent and Calum was sort of innocent as well. They didn't need to know about the plan they had. 

"Michael, would you please explain to us why you decided to do that to Ashton? Did he say something to you? Or was it just because?" Andy asked, approaching the situation a hell of a lot more civilly than Liz had been. 

"He was taunting me and I couldn't help it," Michael admitted, glancing at the other three to reassure them that he wasn't going to tell them about how they had planned to rough Ashton around a little. "Calum tried to stop me, but I didn't listen and then Ben and Jack came around."

"What was he saying to you?" Liz asked. 

"He was calling me a pussy and rude things like that. All I did was ask him a simple question and he was an asshole," Michael told them, half lying. "Excuse my language."

"Language is language, Michael," Andy said. "He said those things to you? Even though he just met you?"

"He was an asshole to me too, dad. When I first met him and played soccer with him and Jack and Ben, he was a jerk," Luke piped up, hoping that it would convince them that Ashton was _not_ a nice kid like they had thought. 

"Really. Would Ashton deny it?" Andy wondered. 

"Probably. He can't let anyone else know his true self," Calum muttered.

"Did he do anything to you, Calum?" Liz asked.

"No, he was after Michael mostly. He did call me a flamboyant gay man though," Calum admitted. 

"Well, that completely changes what we were going to do, which you'll be thankful for," Andy started.

"What were you going to do?" Luke wondered.

"We were going to bring Michael home because we thought that he just beat Ashton for fun, but now that we know that it was due to taunting, I don't think that would be fair to send Michael home for technically defending himself," Andy explained. 

The three boys got smiles on their faces, happy that they didn't have to separate after only one day. There was no way that Ashton was going to break up their hardy crew. No way at all. 

"We'll talk to Ashton's parents later on and tell them what you told us because the chances of Ashton telling them the truth is slim to none," Liz told them. "But until then, I don't want _any_ of you to speak to him or go anywhere near him. We don't need to deal with this again."

That was fine with them. They didn't need that asshole raining on their parade.

\----


	8. Chapter 8

A few days have went by completely Ashton-less. None of the three boys were going to complain one bit about it either. Luke could now walk on his foot as of yesterday, able to go back to normal activities, except real-life soccer. At least for another few days. To celebrate, he and the boys were going to go swimming. It wasn't a huge celebration, but it he wasn't able to do it for those few days and he was going to be damned if he didn't get back in the warm water again.

Liz and Andy talked to John and Anne the day after the incident happened and they hadn't heard about it since. Or Luke's parents were keeping it a secret from them, not wanting to give the satisfaction that Ashton got in trouble and was now locked away in a cellar. That's what Michael said happened. 

"When are your parents coming home?" Michael whined.

"I don't know. They didn't even bother telling me where they went," Luke responded.

"You guys want some pretzels?" Calum asked, walking into the room as he munched on Andy's pretzel sticks.

"Who am I to turn down a good ol' pretzel?" Michael told him.

"Well, then go get them yourself," Calum shot back, a smirk on his face as he took his place on the couch next to Luke.

Michael gave Calum a look of shock, as if Calum was never rude to him like that (he really was). The three boys were sitting and watching Scream on MTV, not wanting to play another countless game of FIFA. They would've went swimming, but Liz flipped her overprotective mother switch on and demanded that they couldn't so much as dip their big toe in the water before they got home because they could drown. Luke understood where she was coming from, but they could've at least made their trip a little shorter than a few hours. That would've been highly appreciated.

As Luke was zoned out in his thoughts, a few loud clunks came from outside, startling all of the boys. After exchanging confused glances, they all got up and then followed Luke to where he thought the noise was coming from.

Luke thought that it was Ashton, expressing his anger by throwing shit at their house or kicking their garbage cans over. But when he got to the door and looked out of the small window, he saw his parents' vehicle. With a _pontoon._

Luke pushed open the door and stepped out onto the small deck, Calum and Michael in tow. "What the hell is this?"

"We bought a boat!" Liz said, waving both of her hands in excitement.

"I can see that," Luke scoffed.

He figured that it would be impossible to talk to his parents when they were literally fawning over the boat, so he gestured for his best friends to go back inside. Luke went to his bedroom, grabbing his swim trunks from the top drawer of his nearly empty dresser and slipping them on before walking back out to the living room where Michael and Calum stood awkwardly.

"What?" he asked when they quirked their eyebrows at him. "We did plan on going swimming, didn't we? Get your trunks on."

"You do realize that you have a giant ass boat in your driveway, right?" Calum asked, pointing his thumb towards the front door.

"Yes, Calum, thank you for pointing that out. I don't know I could possibly see something that takes up my entire driveway," Luke answered sarcastically.

"You're not going to, like, wonder about or anything?" Michael wondered.

"It floats and it's a hue of teal...what hue I wonder?" Luke said, faking curiosity. "Better? Now put on your damn trunks."

"Why are you so hell-bent on swimming anyway? You don't want to explor-" Calum started, but was cutoff by Andy coming in.

"What do you guys say about having a boat party?" Andy suggested.

Calum and Michael looked at Luke, who just smirked in response. He figured that his dad would offer that and Luke was all for that. That meant waterskiing, tubing...everything that would feed his adrenaline craving. He knew that Calum and Michael would be for it as well because they're adrenaline junkies just like him.

"I think that is a grand idea. Boys, what do you think?" Luke asked.

"That's some good shit," Calum said.

"Sign me the fuck up," Michael said, raising his arm.

"Well, no need for the foul language, but go and get the things you want to take with," Andy told them as the three bounded back into Luke's room.

\----

Jack was sitting on the pontoon, looking relaxed while Andy and Ben worked on trying to get off of the boat trailer. Liz was putting sunscreen on and perfecting herself. On the other end, Michael was hauling his cooler full of plenty of Mountain Dew, Calum hauling three bags with salsa and other various dipping sauces along with crisps and pretzels, and then there was Luke who was carrying two bags of the sweet things like candy and cookies.

Nobody questioned them except Jack, who was just looking at them as if they had sprouted another head. "Are you guys planning on sharing with the rest of us?"

"No, this is all for us. We were told that you'd bring your own food," Luke told him, earning a snort of disbelief from Jack. "Right, mum?"

"That's right," Liz said.

"So that means that you can't steal our food unless we give you permission," Michael said, setting the cooler by the back of the boat where the three were going to make their home apparently. "This thing has a bed. I am happy."

"You guys are pigs, that's for sure," Jack scoffed.

"Yeah, but unlike you, we're sexy ass pigs," Michael said, striking a sexy pose.

About twenty minutes later, Andy and Ben got the boat successfully off the trailer and they were starting to back away from the dock, Andy thinking that he was the king of the world because he was the captain of the boat. They turned and they were going to by Ashton's backyard, which had the sheds and boats and everything that the Hemmings' didn't have, but that was fine. Luke had friends and family and wasn't bitter like Ashton.

As they went by, Luke earned a thump in the back of his head from Michael. "Dude, look."

Luke looked at Ashton's backyard, seeing that the boy was in the backyard, watching them as he held a soccer ball underneath his foot. Luke couldn't help the smirk that came to his face when he saw the scowl that Ashton was wearing on his face. He was glad that he made him jealous. That was his goal.

"Ashton! You're not supposed to leave the house, dammit! Get your useless ass in here!" John yelled at him, making the wavy haired boy's head snap away from Luke.

Luke looked at John, seeing that the man was furious with Ashton. Luke's smirk fell as he listened to John yell at Ashton. He knew he shouldn't feel any type of sympathy towards Ashton, but when his father calls him useless for no reason? Why did he deserve to get put down like that from his own parents?

"He was totally jealous," Michael chuckled.

"Did either of you hear Mr. Irwin?" Luke asked, hoping that he wasn't the only one feeling a little sad for him.

"No," they both answered in unison.

Luke looked back over to Ashton's yard, seeing that both Ashton and his dad were no longer in the yard. It was like it had never happened.

\----

It was nearing six o'clock and everyone was getting tuckered out, even Jack, who didn't do anything except lay out on the front deck. The three boys knew that they had gotten sunburned, even Michael turned a bit pink and was no longer a ghastly pale.

Luke kept nodding off as Andy made their way back. Michael was already passed out on the tanning bed behind Luke and Calum, snoring away. Calum was curled in the corner, his eyes shut, but Luke thought that he was just sitting there instead of actually sleeping. Ben was leaning on his arm, serving as Liz's pillow as she napped. Jack was laying on the other seat, the sunscreen smiley face that the boys painted on still perfectly happy on his stomach.

It had been a good day. Everyone had bonded and it was like they were all a family, even if Michael and Calum weren't biologically. It was something that everyone needed, especially since Liz was still a little bitter with Michael because of the incident with Ashton.

There was a small cold breeze that wafted across Luke's shirtless body, making him shiver himself awake. He opened his eyes and saw the sunset painted on the sky and reflecting off the water. It was as if it were pulled right out of a painting and put in front of Luke's eyes. Quietly, he picked his phone up off of the seat and opened the camera, capturing the beauty so he could remember this wonderful day.

It wasn't long before they got back to the cabin, the sun nearly gone down. They were driving by Ashton's once again and Luke looked over, not surprised that there wasn't any activity in the yard. The only sign of life on the property was the golden light that was flipped on in what Luke guessed was the kitchen.

Andy pulled the boat next to their dock and stretched, letting out a small groan. He looked at Luke and smiled. "Well, I certainly stretched out my sea legs."

Andy got off of the boat, grabbing the rope that was coiled on the outside and tied it to the pole randomly sticking out of the wooden dock. Luke stood up, the sensation of the stretch in his thighs. He reached over and poked Calum lightly, the Kiwi boy's eyes flicking open. He looked up at Luke, confused for a minute but then seemed to figure out where he was. Luke was wrong; he must've passed out.

"How long was I out?" Calum asked, his voice raspy.

"About seventy years," Luke answered, earning a tired slap from Calum.

"Sure as hell felt like it," Cal replied with a yawn. "Where the hell is Michael?"

Luke pointed to the bed behind him, Calum looking and seeing their friend snoring with his back to them. Calum looked to Luke and smirked. "Wanna have a little fun?"

"Do tell what you mean by fun," Luke asked, returning Calum's smirk.

"Oh, you know Michael's fears when it comes to bodies of water," Calum shrugged.

The two boys got up, getting themselves close to Michael's head. Luke swore that the kid was going to inhale them if he snored any harder. They looked to each other and both nodded for a cue. "SHARK ATTACK!"

Just as they backed away, Michael jumped four meters in the air, looking scared to death. He was panting, freaking out and fearing for his life when he saw Calum and Luke dying of laughter in front of him. His eyes narrowed and he was ready to pounce.

"You two are the worst friends I have ever had," Michael said, crossing his arms. "I could have had a fucking heart attack!"

"Would you shut up? Some of us are trying to sleep," Jack grumbled.

"Well, that's unfortunate," Luke shrugged.

"Lucas, be nice to your brother," Liz muttered, getting up from Ben, who was also now awake.

The three boys ran back up to the house, well, more like power-walked. Despite the weather still being warm, they were all a bit cold because of their sunburn, especially Michael. Calum not so much because he didn't necessarily burn. Michael and Luke felt their skin begin to stiffen when they got into Luke's bedroom and stood rather still as they picked out their clothes to put on, all three of them deciding on a hoodie and joggers.

"Michael, you're living up to your name right now," Calum said, trying to hold back a laugh.

"What do you mean?" Michael asked, coming in from the guest room as he pulled his navy blue sweatshirt down.

Luke looked up at his best friend, seeing that the boy's face was bright red. It was literally _glowing_. Luke couldn't help but laugh at how funny it looked with his red hair, which made him look like one of Satan's spawns, not that he wasn't.

"What the hell? I don't know what you're laughing at," Michael said, getting more and more angry.

"Look in the mirror, Clifford," Calum pointed.

Michael did what Calum said and his eyes widened the size of saucers. He put his hands to his cheeks, slapping the red skin and then winced in pain. "What the hell?! I look like I'm fucking Satan!"

"And Clifford the Big Red Dog," Calum pointed out.

"Shut the fuck up, Hood!" the red boy snapped.

"What? I'm not the one who painted myself red and started running around like a dog," Calum said. "Red must be your favorite color."

"It was one time when I was, like, seven!" he defended. He turned to Luke. "What the hell do I do?! I can't meet women like this!"

"The only woman that you're going to meet like this is whatever trash that Ben and Jack bring home that are way too old for you, so you've got nothing to worry about," Luke told him, knowing that he wasn't comforted at all. "Well, other than Calum taking pictures of you that will most likely end up on Instagram."

Michael's eyes shot over to the Kiwi lad and he looked like he could kill him.  "You son of a bitch."

"Hey, hey, hey. I don't have my phone," Calum said, putting his hands up in surrender.

"I'm watching you, Hood," he pointed angrily. 

The boys walked out of the room after all three of them were comfortably dressed, finding the rest of Luke's family outside, creating a bonfire. Another bonfire would be grand, considering the last one had some unwanted guests and ended up crashing and burning - no pun intended. They all walked outside and down the deck stairs, Liz turning to them with a tired smile on her slightly pink face. 

"How would you boys fancy a bonfire?" she asked. "This time, without any fights."

"That sounds like heaven to us," Calum answered for them. 

Liz was getting snacks ready and Andy was showering. Luke's brothers were sitting out on the dock, most likely talking about girls or something stupid like that. Luke, Calum, and Michael on the other hand were sitting in their 'comfortable' lawn chairs, bullshitting back and forth as the fire crackled in front of them. 

The slightly orange glow from the fire made Michael look even more demonic, making it hard not to laugh at him. Thankfully, Calum snuck a picture of it for him and Luke to hold against the poor little tomato boy later. 

"You know, heat doesn't feel very fantastic when you have sunburn," Michael pointed out. 

"Really? I didn't know that! My mum failed to tell me that a gagillion times when I was five," Calum sassed. 

"You know what, Calum? Suck my dick," Michael said, flipping Calum off. 

"I'll pass. I wouldn't want my tongue to start on fire," Calum chuckled. Michael flipped him off again, throwing the beanie that had previously been on his head at him. 

"I thought I said no fighting," Liz said with a smirk as she came towards the fire ring, bags and bowls of goodies in her hands. 

"It's Calum's fault," Michael surrendered, earning an eye roll from Calum.

Suddenly, there was some rustling over by the property line and everyone's gazes went to where the noise was coming from. Luke felt a feeling of irritation fall over him as Anne and John Irwin emerged from the small path that connected the two properties. 

"What the fuck are they doing here?" Michael whispered at Luke, who shrugged, just as clueless as the other two were.

"I was wondering when you would join us!" Liz cooed, rushing over to the couple. The three boys behind her just looked around with wide eyes. 

"Hello, boys," Anne greeted with a small wave as the adults came over, taking a seat in the lawn chairs opposite. "Thanks for inviting us over. We needed to get out." 

"Well, of course, Anne! You two are the sweetest people I have yet to meet up here," Liz gushed, making Luke cringe. 

Michael and Calum kept shooting Luke looks, urging him to explain why their arch nemesis' parents were sitting around his fire pit, which he couldn't explain at all. So he took matters into his own hands. 

"Where's Ashton?" Luke asked nonchalantly, earning an odd look from his mother. 

"He's grounded. He's to stay in his room indefinitely," Anne answered, almost sounding pissed off.

The three exchanged glances, getting their answer whether or not Ashton was coming over or not. Thankfully he wasn't. Just because Luke felt a little sympathy towards him earlier, didn't mean that he wanted to be friends with him.

\----

It was getting later, the sky pitch black now. Everyone was getting along great, the fighting replaced with laughing and joking. Luke didn't know that Anne and John were such cool people. It actually kind of made him sad that Ashton hadn't given him a chance because they could've been really good friends, but Ashton didn't want to be.

"Luke, can you go get some wood for your old man?" Andy asked after he somewhat calmed down from laughing at the joke that Ben had just told.

Luke nodded, getting up from his chair with a smile on his face. He went over to the wood pile next to the tree line that separated the Irwin's from the Hemmings'. He grabbed a piece of wood, dropping it behind, so he reached over the medium sized pile only for his hand to brush what felt to be hair. Jumping back, Luke dropped the small block of wood that he had been holding and looked at the pile with horror. What if it was a dead body?!

Slowly, Luke reproached the wood pile, withdrawing his iPhone from his pocket and turning the flashlight on when he got to the very edge before looking over. When he did see what his hand had brushed, his shoulders fell in relief and he rolled his eyes for having got scared.

"Ashton? What the hell are you doing back here?" Luke asked quietly. 

\----


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter may be triggering. It involves abuse. Consider this a fair warning.

"Please don't tell them."

Ashton was looking up at Luke with desperate hazel eyes that were twinkling in the moonlight. In that moment, he didn't resemble the mean, cold-hearted dickhead that Luke hated with a burning passion. Ashton looked scared and almost resembled a child that lost their mum in the supermarket. And surprisingly enough, Luke didn't hate him.

"Please, Luke. I know that you don't like me and probably think that I deserve getting my ass handed to me, but you don't understand what will happen if they find out I left the house. I'm begging you, Luke, please," Ashton begged, his whispers dripping with fear.

Luke just looked down at him, not sure if he was doing the right thing or not. Or whether or not he was going to regret it. "I won't tell, but first you have to tell me why I shouldn't."

"Not here. They'll wonder why you've been gone so long. Figure out a way to come back here without your... _lovely_ friends," Ashton instructed quickly.

Luke just nodded in response, picking a few logs in his arms and walked back to the fire. Nobody seemed to be concerned or notice that he had been gone a little longer than he should've been. He set the logs down by Andy and went back over to his friends, sitting down and acting like nothing had happened.

He sat back, acting like he was listening to Michael and Calum when he was really thinking about Ashton's instructions about getting away from the fire by himself. He didn't know what to expect. Why couldn't he have just told him there? He could've just summed it up quickly and Luke could've asked to talk to Ashton tomorrow morning. For all Luke knew, Ashton could potentially beat him in revenge for Michael's doing or just in pure vengeance. Luke didn't know if he could trust him. But then he thought back to what he had seen earlier. He thought back to John shouting at Ashton for being in his own yard and treating him as if he was a dog. It was a tossup.

But Luke being Luke, decided to go with the risky business and see what it was that Ashton had wanted to tell him.

"Where are you off to?" Calum asked as Luke got up from his chair.

"I'm going to take a walk. I have a slight headache," he lied.

"Can we come?" Michael asked.

"Nah, I think I'll take this one on my own. Maybe later," Luke smiled.

With that, Luke went back over to the woodpile, looking behind it to see that Ashton had disappeared. Luke looked around, but then he heard someone quietly whistling. Luke looked up from behind the woodpile towards the whistle and saw Ashton peeking out from behind a bush down by the shore line. Before Luke continued going, he made sure that nobody had been following him and then took off towards Ashton.

"Follow me," Ashton said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Luke just went along with it, following Ashton along the shoreline that separated there properties. Ashton took a seat on a big log, gesturing for Luke to do the same. He had never realized the small clump of trees between his and Ashton's was as big as it was. He thought that it was just a line of trees, but he was wrong.

"This is where I come when I don't want to be bothered by anyone," Ashton admitted to him quietly. "Or if I want to get away from my parents."

"I didn't know that this was that big," Luke told him. They were quiet for a minute, both boys looking out at the moonlit lake. "I don't mean to sound rude, but can you explain to me why I shouldn't go back and tell them that you're out here?"

"Oh, um, yeah," Ashton said swallowing. He looked down at his black Vans, which had sand sitting in neat little piles on the toe. "Because...well, there's really no good reason that I can give you because I've been nothing but shitty to you. But if you tell them that I left home and went outside, I won't just be getting time added onto my sentence."

"What do you mean?" Luke asked, scared of where the boy was heading with this.

"My dad has always been strict and has always been...a bit rough, if you will. Throughout my childhood, I had accidentally seen him hit my mum and yell at her when he got angry. It was never in front of me and I never intentionally tried to see it. I was in the stage that I wanted to be just like dad and that's when it all happened to me. It started when I was eight years old because I had punched a kid, breaking his nose, and I had gotten sent to the principal's office, earning a suspension. In the office, he was upset with me, obviously, but when we got home, he began yelling at me and that's when he hit me across the face and gave me a black eye, along with locking me in the basement for the duration of my suspension," Ashton explained, a tear running slowly down his cheek. "I obviously didn't learn because I got worse as time went on and continued beating kids up and harassing people and the beatings and punishments got worse."

Luke looked at Ashton, feeling extremely sympathetic towards him. "What about your mum? Can't she find some way to stop him or something?"

"No. She tried once when I was younger, but my dad ended up pushing her down the stairs. She doesn't say anything and just lets it happen now," he told Luke.

"Does it happen as often now?" the blonde asked curiously.

"No. I haven't really done anything bad up until Michael. I've been better over the past year or so and he hasn't hurt me," he answered.

"What about your siblings? Does he hurt them?" Luke wondered, earning a shake of the head from Ashton.

"They know what happens because they walked in on it a few years ago after I had defended myself by punching this guy who was bullying me for my sexuality," he told me. "I didn't tell him the actual reason I had started wailing on the guy, so basically, I had to say that I started the fight. Kind of like I did with Michael, but I actually do realize that I did start that."

"Wait - why was the guy teasing you for your sexuality? Are you...gay?"

Ashton nodded his head. "My parents can't know that. If they do, then I don't even know what will happen. I just...I don't know if they're homophobic or not, but I get the feeling that my dad would be and he would hurt me for it. If I even go outside, the man not only has the cow, but an entire fucking barn."

Luke didn't know how to respond. As he tried to think of something to say, he saw that Ashton was crying. Not knowing what else to do, Luke put his arm around the wavy haired kid, pulling him closer in hopes to give him some type of comfort. Ashton immediately curled into Luke's hoodie, grabbing onto it in his fist as he cried.

A few hours ago, Luke wouldn't have thought that he would be holding a crying Ashton. He didn't think that he would now know about Ashton being beaten either. He didn't think that he would be sitting, repeating that he would be there for him. That he was willing to help him whenever he needed it.

In other words, Luke no longer hated Ashton.

\----


	10. Chapter 10

Luke woke up the next morning, rolling over to see Calum in a ball on the air mattress and Michael sprawled out on the floor with his mouth hanging open. Luke peeled his eyes open further as he reached for his phone to check what time it was. The screen lit up, reading a reasonable hour thankfully. Luke would've cried if it would have been earlier.

Stretching in his bed, Luke let out a strained moan and then let his body go limp as he looked up at the ceiling. His mind wandered to last night when he was by the lake with Ashton and the boy told him his life story. As much as it was believable, it wasn't. Luke wanted to believe what Ashton had said to him, but he didn't trust him. There was no reason for him to. Every time Luke started to believe him, he kept it in the back of his mind that Ashton had literally just hated him 24 hours ago.

Taking a deep breath, Luke sat himself up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, his feet landing on the rather cold wooden floor. He quietly snuck out of his room and out to the kitchen to get the chocolate Rice Krispies before Michael inhaled them. His mum was sitting on the couch, watching some cooking show and Andy was in the kitchen, trying not to bang around the pots and pans, but was failing just slightly.

"Good morning, honey," Liz said, smiling at her youngest son when a commercial came on.

"Morning, mum," Luke grumbled, his voice deep from just waking up.

"Do you boys want some eggs?" Andy asked, walking out of the kitchen in his blue plaid pajama pants that Luke got him for Christmas a few years ago.

"I don't know about Mikey and Cal, but I would sure like some. Also, put some chocolate Rice Krispies on the side," Luke requested, earning a weird look from his dad. "Michael will eat it all and it's _my_ cereal, dammit."

Andy just laughed and Liz muttered for him to watch his language. It was funny because Luke had a potty mouth around his parents quite a bit of the time and his mum never called him out on it, only once in a blue moon she did. Luke just found it funny how she was sometimes sensitive to it and other times she wasn't.

Luke took a seat on the couch next to Liz, not really wanting to watch the cooking show, but he knew that Liz was a fanatic of the show and he wouldn't be that jerk of a son and ask her to turn it this time. He remembered that the last time he watched this was when he was thirteen years old. He actually learned how to make some special type of pancake and ended up making them for his parents the next morning, but ended up making regular pancakes with whipped cream on top because his memory failed him when it came to remembering how the chef's on the show did it.

"So, how was Ashton last night?" Andy asked, handing Luke his plate and bowl.

"W-what?" he stuttered, not sure what to say.

"Don't play the oblivious card," Andy laughed. "I know that's where you went. I went to get some drift wood and I heard you two talking."

"You can't tell his parents or Mikey and Cal," Luke warned his dad.

"I understand not telling his parents, but why not the other two?" he wondered.

"Because they just can't know. I don't want them to," Luke responded.

Andy just nodded and went back into the kitchen. Luke dug into his food, not noticing that Liz was looking at him with a confused face. She knew that Ashton was grounded and wasn't allowed to leave the house, so that didn't make sense why he snuck out. Another thing that confused her was why Luke was even talking to him in the first place. Ever since the two met, Luke couldn't tell her enough how much he hated Ashton and vice versa.

"What did you talk to him about, Luke? Neither of you are hurt, right?" Liz questioned.

"No, mum. We just talked about...things. Nothing that was a huge deal," Luke shrugged, not wanting to tell her that Ashton was a gay and abused kid. That wouldn't be fair to Ashton at all. It wasn't Luke's story to tell.

"And I'm guessing that you're not going to tell me these things either? You know, I find it hard to believe that you two were talking nice to each other. Just yesterday you hated him," she pointed out.

Luke rolled his eyes, knowing that she had a point. "I know, mum. But you don't have to worry because we just talked about whatever. There was absolutely no insults thrown around," Luke reassured her.

"Well, that's a first," she smirked. She was right.

They went back to watching the show in silence and eating their food. Soon enough Michael and Calum came out, begging Andy to cook them some eggs, even though he was already making them.

Luke wanted to tell them about this newfound information on Ashton so they could stop wanting to beat his guts out. It sounded like he already got enough of that at home. But as Luke said before, it wasn't his story to tell.

But also, they couldn't know because they would accuse Ashton of trapping Luke in a web of lies and that Ashton just wanted sympathy for absolutely nothing at all.

That's the way his friends were sometimes; heartless and cruel. But he couldn't blame them because Ashton did treat them pretty nastily. They had a reason not to like him. But if they knew his story, their minds might change.

"Earth to Luke."

Luke looked away from the Telly towards Calum. "I'm sorry. I got into the show."

Michael glance up at it and quirked his eyebrow. "A Swiffer commercial?"

"Don't tell me how to live my life," Luke said. "What were you going to say, Calum?"

"I was just wondering what we were doing today," he said, shoving a forkful of eggs into his mouth.

"I'm not quite sure," he answered, getting up to put his dirty dish in the sink. "You guys think about it and I have to do something for mum."

"Put pants on at least," Michael smirked.

Luke looked down at himself, seeing that he wasn't wearing pants and only his Vans singlet. He was glad Michael pointed that out, otherwise he would've walked out of the house in his underwear. Quickly going back to his room, he dug out his gray athletic shorts and put them on along with shoving his feet into his shoes.

He was planning on going over to Ashton's for some reason. Maybe because he was just that type of person that wanted to make sure another was okay. He wasn't going to stay over at his house all day and ditch his friends. Then they would get suspicious and start questioning why Luke was suddenly hanging out with the guy that had given him a sprained foot. He didn't want that to happen. He just wanted to make sure Ashton was okay and that his dad didn't hurt him last night. And if he did, Luke would just have to comfort him until Ashton was alright.

Walking into the kitchen, Michael and Calum watched him curiously, wondering what the hell he was up to. They figured that his mum wanted him to help his dad or something to that effect. Nothing too grueling otherwise Luke would've refused.

Luke went out the back door and hurried down the stairs. He went through the path that both families used and looked behind him to make sure that his friends didn't decide to venture out with him. When he saw the coast was clear, Luke bounded up to the Irwin's front door, hesitating slightly, but then knocking on it lightly.

He kept wondering if this was a mistake. Maybe Ashton only wanted to talk to him last night and then today they would go back to hating each other. Maybe Luke stopping by to make sure he was okay was the dumbest idea since Justin Bieber pissed in a janitor's bucket. But before he could turn around and walk off, Anne opened the door with a small smile on her face.

"Good morning, Luke. What brings you here?" she greeted, her blonde hair looking just freshly straightened.

"Can I talk to Ashton? I know he's grounded and all, but I have to ask him something. I promise I won't be long. Everyone will start to wonder where I am," Luke told her, trying not to sound desperate.

"As long as you won't be long. Just a warning, but he might be in his boxers. I told him breakfast was ready, but he just isn't a huge fan of getting out of bed," Anne told Luke with a small smile at the end.

She let Luke into the house, which looked just as pristine and neat as the outside looked. The living room was all white, except for the furniture, which was a chalky gray. It looked like it was plucked straight from Homes & Gardens magazine.

"His room is down that hall, last one on the left," Anne directed.

Feeling guilty, Luke slid his shoes off at the door and walked across the cushy carpet down the hallway. He saw on the door across from Ashton's was a sign that read 'THIS IS LAUREN'S HABITAT. DO NOT DISTURB' with an abundance of giraffe stickers and décor around it. Chuckling to himself, Luke turned towards Ashton's door and knocked gently, not wanting to wake the bear if he fell asleep.

"Mum, just give me five more minutes," Ashton whined from the other side of the door. His voice was strangely deep and raspy, making Luke feel some type of way.

"Um, it's Luke. Can I come in?" Luke said through the door awkwardly.

He heard shuffling and then something falling over, followed by a 'fuck', and then the door swung open to reveal a shirtless Ashton with a major case of bedhead. The boy looked at Luke confused, his hazel eyes droopy.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, almost sounding rude, but Luke hoped that wasn't the case.

"I wanted to, erm, talk to you," Luke said, glancing around uncomfortably.

Ashton just opened his door wider and moved out of the way so Luke could enter. Surprisingly, Ashton's bedroom was big and also clean. Like, as clean as the rest of the house. The room was like the living room, white with chalky gray, and the walls had a few band posters neatly placed. There was a desk, but the only things on it were a couple of books and a laptop. Luke thought the desk was rather worthless since most people spent their time in a cabin during the summertime instead of the school year.

"Take a seat," Ashton instructed. Luke sat in the gray desk chair and swung around to face Ashton, who was seated on the bed. "So, what did you want to talk about...?"

"Well, I wanted to make sure that you're okay and if your dad found out you left last night," Luke started.

"No, thankfully. After you went back to the fire, I stayed there a little longer and then I heard my dad laughing and it sounded like he was going back to the house, so I booked it back and snuck in my bedroom window. He only came over to get my mum a blanket and grab himself a beer. When they came home, I had to stay awake until I knew they were asleep and I had to go back outside to move the ladder so my dad wouldn't know that I had snuck out," Ashton explained. "So, to answer your question, I am okay."

"Good. I'm glad," Luke smiled.

"I'm surprised you made it over here without your friends forbidding you," he pointed out.

"They actually don't know I'm over here. I came up with the excuse that I was doing a favor for mum," Luke told him.

"Does your mum know you're here?" Ashton wondered. Luke shook his head. "Hopefully she doesn't talk to them."

"She'll cover for me. She's done it before," Luke shrugged.

"You've snuck off to someone's house that your friends forbade you from ever talking to? Sounds like you've been down this road one too many times," Ashton joked.

"No, actually. This is the first. I got into an argument with Mikey and Cal when we were staying at my grandma's house last year and I didn't want to talk to them, so I said I had to do something for my mum and she didn't know about it, so when she asked where I was and they told her, she just played it off like it actually happened," Luke explained.

Ashton nodded. "Liz is awesome. I wish my mum would do that."

"I think the only reason she does it is because she knows that I would be in for deep shit and I can't afford to lose those two because I really don't feel like making new friends," he said.

"Understandable. But why do you lie then?" he wondered. "If you didn't lie, you wouldn't have to risk losing them."

"I don't do it often. It's usually because they're pissing me off and I want to be alone or now a situation such as this," Luke said.

"What do you mean?" Ashton asked, quirking his eyebrow.

"Well, I don't think we exactly hate each other anymore and we're talking civilly, so I'd say we're on the road to become friends maybe," Luke told him, feeling his cheeks tint just a little. "If that's okay with you. If you want to go back to hating my guts, that's fine too."

Luke honestly expected Ashton to go with the second option, but he didn't.

"I mean, you are a pretty chill guy, so I would be stupid to go back to hating you."

\----


	11. Chapter 11

Ever since the talk with Ashton a few days ago, Luke had been in a little higher spirits. But he also felt like he was distancing himself from Michael and Calum. He knew that it was stupid to feel like he did, but if Luke told them that he and Ashton were now on the way to being friends, the two would go into coronaries. That's just how it was with those two sometimes. If they didn't like something, they would get overly dramatic and let you know that it didn't fit their fancy.

The last Luke had talked to his newfound friend was two nights ago when they had another bonfire. Ashton had told him that his parents were going to unground him in exactly a week and Luke was happy that he would be able to see Ashton freely without him having to sneak around his parents. Especially after Ashton had told him that John had caught him getting ready to sneak out and gave him a slight black eye. There was sadly evidence of it.

That's why Luke was counting down the days. That's when Ashton wouldn't have to worry about walking on eggshells and getting bruised for making a mistake, at least not as much as when he was grounded. Luke just hoped that within five days, he would get the balls enough to tell Michael and Calum that they were friends.

"Luuuuukkkeeeee," Michael whined, tearing the blonde out of his thoughts.

"What?" he asked.

"Have you not been listening at all? We've been talking to you for, like, five minutes," Calum pointed out.

"Sorry, I just zoned out," Luke lied...sort of.

"Yeah, you seem to be doing that a lot lately," Calum scoffed. "Do you want to go swimming?"

"I don't care. If you want to, I guess we can," Luke shrugged lazily.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Luke? You're not acting normal. You're zoning out a lot or just ignoring us, I can't tell. You act like you don't want to even be around us. For the past four days this has been happening. We're starting to feel like you just want us to go home. Is that what you want, Luke? Do you want us to leave?" Calum confronted angrily, catching Luke off guard. He didn't expect Calum to fly off the deep end like that just because he had actually been zoning out.

"Nothing's wrong with me. When I'm tired, I tend to go to Cloud 9. You guys know that, so you shouldn't be bitching at me about it. Why would I ignore you if you didn't do anything to deserve it? I may be an asshole, but I'm not going to be one to my best friends unless you deserve it. So, if you're going to bitch at me like this, you're definitely on your way to deserving the silent treatment," Luke countered back, not in the mood to fight with them, but sounded otherwise.

"I'm not bitching at you, Luke. I'm confronting you and asking what's going on. You're the one who's wanting to pick a fight. So, since you're going to be an asshole about it, we're going to start packing. C'mon, Michael," Calum spat.

Michael stayed quiet, looking between the two awkwardly. He wasn't one to interfere with fights between Luke and Calum or anyone else unless it called for it in his eyes. The boy got up quietly and followed Calum into Luke's room, leaving Luke alone with the telly on an action movie.

Luke rolled his eyes, not wanting to deal with the two. He wasn't in the mood. For some reason, Luke was starting to get a short fuse with both Calum and Michael and he didn't understand why. It wasn't like they were doing anything necessarily irritating. They just irritated him. Luke had a feeling that it was because he knew that they didn't like Ashton in any way, shape or form and they weren't about to change their minds either.

As he sat there trying to get into the movie, his mum came in the room looking around, confused as to where the other two hoodlums she was housing were at. "Luke, where's Calum and Michael?"

"Acting like little bitches," Luke shrugged, not bothering to look at Liz.

"What do you mean? Luke, what happened?" Liz asked, crossing her arms. Luke rolled his eyes, knowing that he was going to get lectured.

"I'm tired and Calum started bitching at me for zoning out a few times in the past few days. He went ballistic and now he's supposedly packing and he's making Michael do it along with him," Luke explained.

"Did you do anything to set him off?" she wondered.

"No! I was literally day dreaming and didn't hear what he said. He repeated the question, I answered with an either/or answer and Calum went crazy," he answered.

Liz didn't say anything and walked off. Luke shook his head, not really bothering. Now not only was his best friends pissed at him, his mum was. It's whatever. At least Ashton and the men of the family weren't acting like they were on their man period and hating him for the stupidest reason.

He went back to watching the movie, figuring out that it had to be Inception since it was about dreams and all that jazz and also had Leo DiCaprio in it. He didn't understand why that man hadn't gotten an Oscar. He was a brilliant actor. He should've gotten one for Titanic at least. That movie was Luke's guilty pleasure and he would go gay for young Leo. That was the only guy he would turn for.

As he continued watching the movie, the door to what sounded like his room slammed and he expected to see Calum storming out with his bags and Michael following. It wouldn't surprise him. Calum liked to be dramatic and he was going to make a dramatic exit if given the chance. It was just how the kid was. Luke always thought that he should be in drama class or even the lead in the next play on Broadway.

But no, it was Liz.

"Luke, I was told you were the one that went berserk. Now, since I wasn't here, I don't know who's lying and who's telling the truth. So, I want you all to hash it out. I'm not going to have you three fighting in my house and I'm not asking your dad to bring them home or make their parents drive all the way here to pick them up. It isn't fair to them nor us," Liz explained sternly. "I explained this to them and I'm explaining the same thing to you. If you need to take a walk to cool down, then go ahead. I would say you can play Xbox, but I think that's what they decided to do. But do whatever it is to calm your ass down and then when you both are ready, I expect everything to be solved and everyone to be happy, happy, joy, joy. Got it?"

Luke stayed quiet, actually feeling slightly fearful of his mum and her stern voice. So instead of answering, he just nodded his head quickly. With that, Liz walked into the kitchen and it sounded as if she was washing dishes. Luke being slightly intimidated - not that he would admit it - got up from the couch and slipped on his shoes that were by the door. He slipped out the front door without any question from Liz and hurried down the stairs. He figured that if anything could calm him down, it would be a walk. Maybe even visiting Ashton.

\----

"Don't let them bother you. I know they don't like me, but you don't need to take the liberty to change their minds or be mad at them for it. I earned how they feel towards me and I don't want you to lose your two best friends over it when it doesn't fully involve you," Ashton explained to the blonde sitting in front of him.

"Yeah, but it pisses me off that they joke around and belittle you every chance they get. I don't want them to do that because you don't deserve it," Luke defended. "I get...protective."

"You get protective over me? Why? I mean, I'm not being rude, but we aren't that good of friends. I don't deserve you to be so protective over me," Ashton said, slightly confused.

"I know, but you...you go through so much already and I don't like that they add to the weight on your shoulders," Luke said.

As he looked at the wavy haired boy sitting on the bed in front of him, Luke saw him get a guilty expression on his face. He didn't want Ashton to feel like it was his fault he got beaten by his dad. It wasn't Ashton's fault. Sure, he could handle situations better and not hurt people, but his dad could've too. John shouldn't have to beat up his son because he doesn't approve of the choices his son makes. He could simply just ground him and take away his phone; not beat the living shit out of him with noticeable bruises.

Every time Luke looked at Ashton, he saw the black eye. It made his heart hurt. Ashton didn't deserve that cruel treatment. Even when Luke couldn't stand him, he would never have wished for him to get abused by his own parents. Nobody deserves it.

"They're not a weight on my shoulders. They're just a pain in the ass, no offense," Ashton sighed. "Don't get pissed or protective. I'm a big boy; I can handle myself. Or try to, at least."

Luke gave Ashton a small half-smile and nodded, letting him know he heard him and understood. But that wasn't going to stop Luke's blood from boiling every time those two insulted Ashton. Luke was going to protect Ashton.

\----


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [You can ignore this. Regards the 5SOS issue of The Rolling Stone and the drama that followed. I had put this on the chapter on my Wattpad account since it had happened at the time of the original posting]
> 
> Dedicated to the boys of 5 Seconds of Summer - I'm sorry I had doubts and believed that you would say such bullshit. :( I love you guys - always have and always will.

When Luke walked in the back door of the house, he heard what sounded like Calum and Liz arguing. Or more like Calum not getting his way probably. It usually would be awkward and completely disrespectful for your best friend to be arguing with your mum - it still is - but Calum was like Luke's brother and Liz looked at him like he was her own. So, an argument wasn't exactly out of reach for them. Especially since they were like cats and dogs.

As Luke walked further into the house, he could hear Calum yelling about how he and Michael were going home. He assumed after the lecture he got from Liz before he went to Ashton's, Liz was refusing to supply him with transportation back home. In a way, Luke was thinking that it served him right since Cal was acting like such a little bitch. But that also meant that Luke was going to be stuck with said little bitch for however long they were staying originally.

There wasn't a chance Calum was going to make this easy on any of them. And if they both found out about Luke and Ashton striking up a friendship, then Luke was going to be at the thresholds of Hell.

Being that Luke didn't want to get involved, he didn't know if he should just turn around and go back outside and find the rest of his family or if he should test his luck and try to sneak into his room to play FIFA. It sounded like they were right at the front door, so the likelihood of one of them seeing him would be high. He also knew that if he was back in his room, Liz would storm back there, most likely dragging Calum by his ear, and command that the two talk it out or fight it out or something along those lines. Luke didn't want to be bothered. More like, he didn't want to deal with the hot-blooded Calum.

Deciding to go hang out with his dad and brothers, Luke twisted on his heel and went to walk back out the back door. But as he looked out to see if they were milling around in the yard, he saw that the boat was gone, which meant the three had already left for their boating trip. Cursing, Luke didn't know what to do. He could go back to Ashton's, but he didn't want to risk Ashton getting beaten. So, he decided on food, turning to go into the kitchen.

"Are you ready to have a chat?"

Luke nearly jumped and turned to face the entrance to the kitchen. He took his hands out of the cupboard, closing the doors, looking like a guilty criminal just caught by the police because of intense and angry glare that Liz was giving him, along with her arms crossed. The look honestly scared Luke because he knew that she was pissed when he saw it. He tried his hardest to avoid getting that look.

"Answer me, Lucas. Calum's waiting," she sneered.

"I think it's more like Calum's forcibly waiting," Luke pointed out, only to get an even worse glare that he didn't think was possible. "Yes, mum."

Liz gestured for her son to follow, in which he did with his eyes on the ground like he was being punished. Which in his eyes, he was. He didn't want to talk to Calum when he was so angry like this. It was impossible for anyone to come to an agreement with him. It was like negotiating with a terrorist.

As they walked out into the living room, Calum was sitting on the couch with an angry pout on his face, staring straight ahead at the fireplace as if he was waiting for it to do tricks. Michael was sitting back, looking scared and innocent, which he technically was. He was just acting as moral support for Calum most likely. Or he felt that he was part of the cause the Kiwi boy blew a gasket. Luke just took a seat in the recliner next to the couch Calum was on, not sure what to do or what to say.

Liz stood in between them, her arms still crossed, but this time her hip was jutted out, making her look sassy and like she wasn't going to take anymore shit from any of them. And Luke was nearly 100% positive that she wasn't.

"I spoke to you both already about working this out and you will do it. Calum, you and Michael are not going to be leaving early because you're having a tiff. For one, it's not only affecting you three, it's affecting the rest of my family and one of yours. It's not fair for one of your parents to come all the way here to pick you two up because your feelings got hurt. It's also not fair for us to take time out of our schedule either," Liz scolded. Neither Luke, Calum, or Michael looked up from the floor. "You need to kiss and make up and make this the hap, hap, happiest cabin trip you have ever went on. I will be damned if you don't get along by tonight. So, get talking."

They all just sat there, not sure what to say or what to do. They were all a little intimidated by Liz yelling and commanding them. Luke wasn't going to initiate any conversation by apologizing either. He didn't do anything, so he shouldn't have to. Calum was the one who started it, so he should be the one apologizing to Luke.

"So, you're just going to sit here like a bunch of bumps on a log?" Liz asked, impatiently waiting for someone - _anyone -_ to speak. Without another word, she took a seat on the couch next to Calum, who didn't bother looking at her. She made herself comfortable, sitting back and resting her feet on the coffee table. "That's fine. I'll just sit here and wait."

\----

It took all of thirty minutes for everyone to start talking. As one would expect, it started with yelling and insults being thrown around like money and then it got down to just talking and Calum apologizing and everything being solved and the three musketeers were back. Liz, of course, was sitting back and smirking to herself, proud of what she had caused.

The three of them were now back in Luke's bedroom, playing Call of Duty. He was happy that he didn't have to come clean about his friendship with Ashton just yet. He would save that detonation for another day. But he did find himself wishing that Ashton wasn't grounded, Calum and Michael got along with him, and they were all playing the video game. He just wanted them all to be friends and get along and not hate each other. He felt like the girl from Mean Girls wanting everyone to be all butterflies and rainbows.

But he knew that it couldn't be that way because Michael and Calum had a hard-on for hating Ashton for tripping Luke and spraining his ankle, which Luke could understand. But at the same time, they needed to let go of the grudge. Luke could walk now, there was no need to continue blaming Ashton. He could also understand why Michael was angry since Ashton had taunted him and led Michael to beating him. But then again, the grudge should be let go. Ashton was being punished for it - in more ways then one - and Michael should feel like there was justice and quit thinking that Ashton was some sort of monster. If only they would get to know him a little bit, they would see that Ashton wasn't anything they thought he was. They would see that he was a great and kind-hearted guy.

"Luke, you're better at this game when you're daydreaming," Michael pointed out, interrupting Luke's Ashton-centric thoughts.

"What? I'm not daydreaming. I'm concentrating on killing these assholes," Luke said, hoping that his best friends didn't notice his cheeks were flushing. He wasn't daydreaming about Ashton at all.

"Are you sure about that? Because we're still waiting on you to answer whether or not you want nachos or nah," he said.

"You really have to ask me if I want nachos? I thought we were best friends," Luke said, looking at Michael with a disappointed look.

"Hey, you never know. You might have grown a hatred towards them within the past few days," Calum spoke up.

"Well, I _haven't_ and I _wasn't_ daydreaming about anyone," Luke said, not even thinking what he was saying.

"Anyone?" Michael asked, making Luke's eyes widen and realized the words that had just come out of his mouth.

"And who would 'anyone' be, Mr. Hemmings?" Calum asked with a smirk on his face.

"Nobody. The only people I talk to here is you guys and my family. Why would I daydream about any of you?" Luke asked, his lying terrible. He was hoping they would buy it, but no such luck.

"Bullshit, Hemmo. Tell us who!"

Well, how was he going to get himself out of this pickle?

\----


	13. Chapter 13

It was the day that Ashton became free. He wasn't grounded anymore and Luke was more than ecstatic. The week had been going by slower than a turtle stuck in peanut butter and finally the day had come that he wouldn't have to sneak past Ashton's parents to see him. Granted, he would still have to sneak around his family, but that was going to be happening until Luke found the nerve enough in him to tell his family + Calum and Michael that he was friends with Ashton. The only thing he was afraid of was the critique and judgment he was going to get. Without that, he would've told them all right away.

He was waiting for the perfect time to escape his friends, but of course, they were making it impossible for him. Just because Luke wanted to be left alone for just an hour, Michael and Calum were stuck on him like flies on shit. He didn't want to start a fight with them by telling them to leave him alone, but he didn't know how to get rid of them nicely. They weren't taking the very obvious hints that Luke was dropping and it was gradually pissing the blonde off.

"Hey, Luke, can we have pizza?" Michael asked.

"Yeah, want me to go pick it up?" Luke offered, happy that he was going to find a way to finally get away from them.

"Can we tag along?" Calum asked.

He spoke too soon. Luke acted like he was thinking about it before he spoke, but he already knew what his answer was. There was no winning with them. The only way that Luke was going to be able to see Ashton on his first day of freedom was if his mum decided to have another shitty dinner party. And that's when an idea came to Luke. He didn't know why he didn't think of asking Liz if they could have another bonfire with the Irwins.

"Well, I guess I'm feeling a bit lazy. Why don't you guys order it? I have to go talk to my mum quick," Luke said, getting up from the chair.

He left the room, trying not to look like he was in a hurry, but was pretty sure he failed at that. The last Luke saw Liz was when she was getting his dad and brothers' lunch ready. They were going out boating again, which kind of saddened Luke that they were excluding him, but he knew that they didn't mean it rudely. They figured that Luke had his friends and that Michael and Calum weren't into fishing anyway, which they were right. Put a fishing pole in either of their hands and they would wonder if it was a javelin pole. It would be rather amusing to watch.

Just as expected, Liz was in the kitchen, putting wrapped sandwiches into a cooler. He knew that she was going to look at him like he grew a third head when he was going to ask her if they could invite the Irwins over. But it was Luke; she should expect the unexpected with him.

"Hey, Luke," Liz greeted with a small smile. "What's up?"

"I had a question for you and you're going to think I'm crazy when I ask," Luke warned her, leaning against the counter.

She stopped wrapping the sandwich in saran wrap and looked over at her son with raised eyebrows. "Okay. What is it?"

"Can we have another bonfire or something tonight and invite the Irwins?" Luke rambled out quickly, adding a quick toothy smile, one that resembled the emoji.

Liz just looked at him and nodded, definitely expecting something way out of line instead of a bonfire with their neighbors. "Yeah, I guess that would be fine. I didn't know you were such a fan of them. I thought you hated Ashton also."

Luke just shrugged, trying to think of a way to deny it, but not to deny it. Make it sound like he was completely neutral. "They're nice people. And I'm thinking of giving Ashton another shot. See if he can prove he's worthy of all this."

"I guess he'll have a lot of proving to do," Liz joked. "I'll call over and see if they're busy tonight. Are Michael and Calum okay with this?"

"I didn't really talk to them about it," Luke said, his voice going up an octave as he scratched the back of his neck. "But it's a bonfire and I'd imagine there would be food, so they won't complain. Well, all that much anyway."

\----

The three teenagers were helping Andy put wood into the fire ring, Luke being strangely ecstatic and everyone around him was noticing that something was up, though they didn't know. They didn't ask either, which made Luke sigh in relief. He didn't want to have to come up with some silly lie instead of just coming out and saying that his new friend was no longer grounded and he could finally spend some time with him without having to hide. But he knew if he said that, Michael and Calum's ridicule would be the closest thing to torture. He didn't really fancy going through that right now. It would drag him down and he didn't want that to happen.

"Luke, can you get our chairs set u-" Andy started but was cut off by his son.

"Yep!" Luke chirped, going over to the shed where they kept their outdoor things.

Andy just watched as his youngest son took the chairs and carried them over to the fire ring. Normally, the boy would make Calum and Michael help him, but he was doing it completely on his own. Andy was starting to wonder what the hell was wrong with the boy.

"Are you okay?" Andy asked, quirking his eyebrow at Luke as he placed his hands on his hips.

Luke looked at his dad with big and wide blue eyes. "Yeah! I'm completely okay! Why?"

"You seem to be overly energetic and I'm lucky to see you carry in more than one grocery bag," the man pointed out. "Seriously, what's gotten into you?"

"Nothing. Just a bit energetic today," Luke shrugged, not really lying. It was because he was going to be seeing Ashton that made him so energetic.

It was almost six o'clock by the time they had the fire going and the food set onto the picnic table. The Irwins were supposed to be coming at any minute and Luke made sure he was checking the path between their cabins to see if they were coming. It felt like time was going slower than the past week.

Calum and Michael had to force Luke to sit down by the fire. They wouldn't say it to his face, but the blonde was driving them to insanity. This was the most hyper they had seen him in a long time. The last time had to be over a year ago. So, to calm him down a little, they figured sitting down would make him relax a little bit. But even sitting there, they could see that their best friend was beside himself. He was constantly shaking one of his legs or tapping his fingers on the chair arm and he was constantly looking at the woods that divided the Hemmings' and the Irwin's cabins.

"Bro, would you settle your ass? You're driving me nuts," Michael said, propping his feet up on a block of wood, watching the orange flames dance in the fire ring.

Before he could respond, Anne and John Irwin made their way through the path with Lauren, Harry, and Ashton in tow. Luke couldn't help but smile at Ashton when he saw him. Thankfully, Calum and Michael weren't looking at him and didn't notice their best friend acting like Ashton was the sun on a cloudy day.

"Seriously? Ashton's back? I thought we got rid of him," Calum whispered to Michael and Luke.

Luke didn't say anything, feeling a small pang of hurt in his heart. He really wished that they would just lose their grudge against him. If only they could forget the past and give Ashton another shot. Sure, what he did to Michael wasn't cool, but it happened and hating him won't change it. That's what Michael and Calum didn't get. Luke had forgiven him and he wished that his two best friends would do the same.

Michael and Calum sat and whispered, probably about Ashton, and left Luke by himself. The blonde was okay with that too. He didn't want to sit and listen to them insult his new friend. Instead of staring Ashton down, he watched the fire and kept casually glancing up at Ashton to see what he was doing. He was over with the rest of his family talking to Andy and Liz. After a few minutes when Luke looked up again, the boy was walking towards them, a small smile on his face as he looked at Luke. Luke returned it, knowing that Michael and Calum were either ignoring him or glaring at him as if he just murdered both of their mothers.

"Hey, Luke," Ashton greeted, taking his spot in the chair next to Luke. He looked to the other two, nodding in their direction. "Michael, Calum. Hello."

Neither Michael or Calum said a word and Luke frowned, glancing at Ashton. The least they could've done was be civil and acknowledge him. But why would he expect that out of them? They weren't going to grow up now if they haven't already.

\----

It was completely dark out and everyone was by the fire, talking and laughing. Ashton and Luke were happily chatting away, both boys happy to finally be talking to each other without having to hide from Ashton's parents or sneak behind Michael and Calum's back. Technically, they still were since they were trying to keep their conversation casual and small talk so it didn't look like they were friends prior to that moment.

If Michael and Calum saw them talking, Luke was going to get interrogated about it. He was going to get interrogated whether they saw it or not. But Luke was starting to get to the point where he didn't get half of a shit if they knew Luke was friends with his neighbor or not. If they're real friends, then they'll accept it and not care.

"Hey, Luke, do you want to go get something to drink with me quick?" Ashton asked him.

"Yeah, sure," Luke agreed with a smile.

The two boys got up, nobody seeming to notice, and Luke started to make his way towards his cabin. He thought that Ashton was walking beside him, but when he looked over, he didn't see the wavy haired boy. He looked behind him and saw that Ashton was talking to John, which made Luke tense a little bit. For obvious reasons, Luke didn't like John and he felt his blood begin to boil when he watched them.

Quickly after Luke looked back, Ashton caught up to him. He noticed how nerved Luke looked and nudged him with his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. He didn't say anything bad."

"Okay, good," Luke smiled, embarrassed that it was that noticeable that he was worried.

The two were in the kitchen and Luke was pouring himself a glass of root beer. When he put the liter bottle down, he looked over at Ashton. "Do you want any? Or something else maybe?"

Ashton stood up and walked around the counter towards Luke. "I'll take you."

Before Luke could question what he meant, Ashton's lips were on Luke's. Like their new friendship, this was unexpected.

\----


	14. Chapter 14

Luke looked at Ashton like he was insane, but then again, he was more shocked with himself for even letting it happen. He and Ashton, what he thought was a newfound _friend,_ had just kissed! For one, he wasn't gay - or at least, he didn't think he was. He didn't have much experience in the dating world or hadn't even thought about his sexuality before. But he knew for a fact that he didn't like Ashton in that way. Well, if he happened to be anything but straight, not yet. But besides that, he didn't even know that Ashton was gay or bisexual or anything! And he certainly didn't think that he would be his type anyway.

"Erm, we should get back to the others," Luke said quickly, turning to the counter to grab his drink.

"Shit, Luke. I'm sorry. I don't know why I did that," Ashton apologized, not making it any less awkward for the situation.

"Let's just get back outside," Luke mumbled, making a beeline towards the door.

He didn't know what to make of it or how to even handle it. He's never been in such a debacle before, so Luke was clueless on what to do. He didn't want to avoid Ashton and give him the idea that Luke was mad at him, but he also didn't want Ashton to think it was okay that he kissed him. Also, there was the problem that Luke felt wrong and uncomfortable and awkward. He'd never had a boy kiss him, especially by surprise, and it felt like it shouldn't have happened. Luke felt wrong for doing it even though he didn't necessarily have any control over it.

Luke so badly wanted to ask Michael and Calum or his brothers about how to handle it since they seemed to have more knowledge and/or experience in that area, unlike Luke. But he hadn't yet told Michael and Calum that he was even communicating with Ashton and if they found out that he had kissed Luke, they would go absolutely ape shit and go around saying how he sexually assaulted Luke when it wasn't at all assault. That would also mean that John and Anne would find out and Ashton would get beaten even more so and possibly even worse. Luke didn't want that because he didn't want to hurt the boy. He cared for him and didn't want to know that he was getting hurt.

If he asked Ben and Jack, it would be awkward. They either have had it happen to them, which wouldn't surprise Luke since they were always getting completely wasted at parties and they were known to do wild and crazy things, or they would judge him so harshly. Ben would probably be less obvious about it whereas Jack wouldn't be and literally sit in his chair and laugh like no tomorrow. That's not what he particularly wanted.

The only other option would be his mum and dad, but they would think he's insane or they would be confused and they wouldn't have a clue how to answer it. They weren't against LGBT+ people. They were actually quite the opposite. But if Luke were to present the situation and ask them what to do, they wouldn't know and they would be confused and instead of answering Luke's question, they would question Luke's sexuality instead.

So, instead, Luke was just going to go with his gut and do what he thought was smart. He would give Ashton a little space until Luke figured out what the hell happened in the first place and then he would talk to the boy about it and figure out what on earth he was trying to do. Either way, everything would get solved and hopefully they could go on like nothing ever happened. That was really all that Luke wanted. He didn't want any awkwardness in his friendships with people. It wasn't fun.

But if Ashton were to have awkward feelings about Luke, he didn't know what he would do. He didn't want to stop being friends with him. Ashton was a genuinely cool and nice guy, despite what had happened before. He didn't want to have to lose the friendship that they had started to build, but he also didn't want to feel awkward around Ashton.

Once the two were back outside, Luke scurried to his chair that was between Michael and Calum while Ashton hurried to his chair that was kind of in the broken part of the circle where he wasn't very close to anyone. The adults were having their own conversations, Harry and Lauren were doing there own thing and weren't going to talk to their big brother, and then Michael and Calum were certainly not going to allow him into their group. Luke felt kind of bad, but he wasn't going to do anything about it.

"Whoa, Luke, why are you so...jittery?" Michael asked, gesturing to Luke's shaking leg. He didn't even realize he was doing it.

"Jittery? I'm not jittery. I'm fine," Luke rambled out.

"If you insist, Mr. Leg Shaker," Calum said.

They went into their own conversation about some nonsense, like they usually did. But the whole time, Luke could feel Ashton's eyes on him. He knew that Ashton probably didn't mean it, but Luke just wanted to put some space between them so the wavy haired boy wouldn't get the wrong idea.

\----

It was completely dark out, the only illumination coming from the bonfire. Luke had started to feel less uptight about what had happened with Ashton and was starting to act like himself again. He wasn't paying attention to Ashton and basically forgot that the boy was there, which was the completely opposite reason he made his parents host this bonfire in the first place. But it was whatever.

"Hey, Luke? Can you be a good son, unlike your brothers, and get your dear old man another beer?" Andy asked Luke, who just laughed at how his dad was so relaxed and starting to slur his words. He wasn't drunk, but he was starting to get buzzed. That's when it got hilarious.

"Yes, sir," Luke laughed along with Michael and Calum. They were the only two outsiders that knew what Andy was like under the influence and they found it to be one of the most entertaining things in the world. That's why the always insisted on coming to any backyard parties that the Hemmings' held. That was also one of the reasons that they wanted to come to the cabin. Just to see if Andy would get buzzed.

Luke got up from his chair and turned to his friends. "You guys want anything?"

"We'll join you," Calum insisted.

Luke nodded as the other two got up as well and they all went up into the house. Calum and Michael announced on the way up that they were going to raid Luke's kitchen because they were hungry and they were going to need some chow for the show that was going to take place by Andy. Sometimes, it wasn't even that extreme or hilarious, but other times it was like a stand up comedy show.

As Luke was getting a bucket of ice ready to put a few of Andy's beers in, the door opened and he was interrupted.

"Luke, I need to speak to you," Ashton said sternly.

Luke turned around from the sink and saw that Calum and Michael had stopped what they were doing and were looking between Luke and Ashton, confused and tense. Luke hesitated, not wanting to talk or go off alone with the boy.

"Please, Luke," Ashton persisted.

Luke put the bucket that was barely filled with ice onto the counter and slowly walked towards Ashton. Michael and Calum watched them with raised eyebrows, confused as to why Luke would even want to communicate with Ashton.

"You hurt him, we're going to kick your ass," Michael announced.

"I'm not going to hurt him," Ashton scoffed.

"It's just a friendly reminder," Calum scowled.

Luke followed Ashton to the bathroom closest to his room, closing the door once they were both in it so Michael and Calum couldn't barge in. Luke put the lid of the toilet down and took a seat, hoping that Ashton would hurry up with whatever it was that he had to say. The last thing that Luke wanted to do was sit in a bathroom for the remainder of the night.

"What do you need, Ashton?" Luke asked, his voice even.

"I need to tell you that I'm sorry for what happened. I didn't...I shouldn't have just done that. For one, I don't even know if you're anything other than straight," Ashton apologized. "I didn't mean for it to happen or to cause anything weird to form between us and I know that it did, but I don't want to lose our friendship. I can't lose it. You're the only one I have up here."

Luke sat quietly, thinking about the last sentence that Ashton had said. That made him feel guilty for ignoring him in the first place because he didn't want to do that. But he felt like Ashton was just saying what Luke wanted to hear and he didn't want Ashton to lie to him just so Luke could be happy. He wanted to know if Ashton had those awkward feelings, which was obvious he did, and he wanted them to be put out on the table once and for all.

"Don't say what you think I want to hear, Ash. Tell me truthfully," Luke started. "Why did you really kiss me?"

Now it was Ashton's turn to become silent. His hazel eyes averted away from Luke's, not wanting to look at him with guilt. Luke knew that it was true, but he knew that Ashton could've taken this as Luke saying that 'if you like me, we can't be friends'. Luke didn't want him to think that, but he didn't know how else to word it in order for Ashton to tell him the truth.

"I...I like you, okay? You're not exactly ugly and you're a really good person and I can't help it. If I couldn't like you, I wouldn't because I know that it's unlikely you feel the same way," Ashton hurried out, tears escaping his eyes. "Now that you know, you're probably going to hate me. I'm sorry. I didn't choose this."

"I know it's not your choice. The heart wants what it wants. I'm not mad at you and I'm not going to hate you because of it. I may not feel the same way, or at least, I don't know if I do, but I'm hoping that we can continue to be friends," Luke told Ashton.

"You're not going to run away from me because I'm a gay freak that likes you?" Ashton asked.

"Of course not. It's a stupid reason to," Luke reassured the boy.

Ashton stepped forward, giving Luke a hug, which Luke happily returned. "Thank you so much. I don't know what I would've done without you. You're the only person I have, Luke. The only one who listens and gives a shit about me."

Luke didn't know what to say, so he just continued hugging him, thinking that was enough for the boy. Ashton was starting to show Luke that he was fragile and not very good at telling other people his emotions. It meant a lot to Luke that Ashton had opened up to him and trusted him enough to do so.

"You're the only one I have."

\-----


	15. Chapter 15

"What the hell was that about?" Michael asked as Ashton went back outside.

Luke didn't want to tell them about it. They didn't deserve to know because he knew that it would give them another reason to not like Ashton and to even make fun of him and Luke didn't want that. Ashton had enough shit going on and to have Michael and Calum jump on his ass about being gay and having a crush on Luke was unnecessary. As far as Luke was concerned, Michael and Calum weren't being true friends to Luke. Granted, they didn't know that Luke had a friendship with Ash, but it still was rude that they talked shit behind his back like they were talking about the latest footie match.

"Luke? Would you talk to us?" Calum asked, his voice soft and calm.

"What about? I've been talking to you all day and night. What more do you want?" Luke chuckled, acting as if he had never talked to Ashton.

"You know what I mean," Calum said more harshly, but then his voice got soft again. "Is there something you're not telling us, Luke?"

"I have no idea why you would think that. I've been completely honest with you guys," Luke shrugged, obviously not satisfying the two friends.

"Really? Then explain why Ashton just came up here, begging to talk to you? If I hated my neighbor, the last thing I would want to do is talk to them without beating them or something," the boy pointed out, crossing his arms.

Luke was grasping to come up with words that would neither confirm or deny anything because he didn't want to lie, but he wasn't coming up with any neutral excuses that they would buy. The only thing that he could do is bury himself in lies or come clean and then have to live with the judgment from them later on. Hopefully, if he came clean, they would become pissed at him and insist on leaving so Luke wouldn't have to face them for the rest of the summer. That wasn't likely since he hadn't lied, but a boy could dream. It was sad that he had to dream that though.

"People can't just talk to each other normally anymore? Does there always have to be a reason? Christ," Luke said weakly. He thought that the sass would've worked on them, but it wasn't bound to since he didn't pull it off.

"We can tell each other anything. The three of us have been nothing but honest with each other. Well, until now. Michael and I have never hid anything from you. What did we do to lose your trust? We've done nothing to deserve you being all secretive. It isn't fair to us. I thought we were best friends, Luke," Calum scolded, his tone sharp. "I didn't think you would turn out to be an asshole."

Luke just stayed quiet as Calum stormed off with his food and drink, the backdoor slamming behind him as he went back out to the bonfire. Luke was actually surprised that Michael wasn't following the boy. But at the same time, he remembered that Michael didn't like to create confrontation or be involved with it for long when it came to Luke and Calum. Despite Michael starting the fist fight with Ashton, he didn't like to argue or fight. That wasn't what Michael was about, at least, for as long as Luke's known him and has seen of him.

"Why didn't you run off with Cal?" Luke scoffed. "I'd imagine he's going to convince you that you're going to be leaving tomorrow."

"If you're hiding anything, you can tell us. Or just me. But neither of us are going to judge you," Michael said quietly. His voice was so quiet, it was almost a whisper.

That was a side of Michael that Luke had never seen. He didn't usually go against Calum or bother to be told something. Well, this hasn't necessarily happened in their small friend group before, but still. Michael was never one to pry. It wasn't like he was prying though, he was more just telling Luke that he could trust him -and Calum for that matter. But Luke knew that...to an extent. But it was more of a matter if Luke was ready to tell them. They hadn't particularly proven to Luke that they should know this bit of information about Ashton - well, mainly just Calum. But Michael usually goes along with what Calum says. He tries to avoid confrontation and Calum was the one that had the shortest fuse, so he wasn't about to go against that.

Luke just shook his head. "I'm not hiding anything from either of you. It's really nothing. Calum's overreacting for absolutely no reason at all."

As Luke glanced up, he saw Michael frowning at him. It was rare to see Michael frown. The boy usually had a straight face when he wasn't smiling or laughing. People actually just believed that Michael was just a depressed guy that was just sad all the time, but his straight face and frown were completely different. When Michael had a straight face, he looked like a badass that you don't want to mess with. The boy could even come across as intimidating. But when he frowned, he looked like a kicked puppy. His green eyes twisted into heartbreak. It was the most shattering sight to see and Luke hated it. That's what he was being faced with now and the blonde couldn't bear it.

"Mikey, don't look at me like that," Luke told him. "If I had something I wanted to tell you, I would. But I have nothing I want to say."

Michael just shrugged without a word and started walking towards the backdoor. He looked back at Luke with sad eyes. "I just wish you wouldn't have changed like this. I don't like the secretive Luke."

With that, Michael walked out of the door, which slammed behind him as he went to join everyone back at the bonfire. The bonfire that Luke had planned and had wanted to have, but had just ended up being a complete and total train wreck. It wasn't going as he had wanted or as he thought it would've. He definitely hadn't expected one of his best friends to kiss him, turn out to be gay, and also have a crush on him. He also didn't expect for his other temperamental best friend to go off the handle and accuse him of hiding something (even though he was) and probably had his escapade all planned out. And to put icing on the surprise cake, he didn't expect for Michael to get all heartbroken and emotional looking and claim that he changed into "secretive Luke".

It was at that point that Luke didn't even want to go back out there. It seemed that everything was better without him anyway. The only solution that Luke saw with the problems at hand was to hide in his room and hopefully fall asleep by the time the party was over. The party that Luke had wanted so badly to have just a few hours to go and now he can't wait for it to be over.

Figuring that just staying inside would be the best choice, Luke grabbed the food and drink items he had originally got to bring back down to the fire and retired to his room. After he placed the food items on his bed, he went back and shut his door, locking it for the first time since they moved in. Thankfully, his shades and blinds were pulled so Michael, Calum, and Ashton weren't able to look up and see that the lights were on or that Luke was even in the bedroom. But they would probably end up assuming it since he wasn't coming back out. They probably didn't even notice. His parents were to busy talking to John and Anne, Harry and Lauren to each other, Ben and Jack to each other as well. If Michael and Calum noticed, he was pretty sure that Calum would make a smart ass comment and Michael would just shrug it off. Ashton would notice though, but probably wouldn't do or say anything since it would be awkward to go into the house for no reason at all.

That was fine with Luke. He wanted to just be alone, even if it meant being alone with his thoughts. That was probably one of the worst things to do since he felt like he was an outsider in his own cabin, but the only plus side was that he could fall asleep, which meant that the thoughts would go away and would be replaced by dreams or nightmares. That was better than being outside with people who could care less he was alive.

\----

Luke's eyes flickered open, the room still dark so he knew that he hadn't been asleep too long. He was even in the same position that he passed out in, so it wasn't like he had been out for hours on end. Or maybe he had and suddenly turned into a very immobile and sound sleeper.

He stretched his legs and then flopped over on his back to see if Michael and Calum were in the room, but then remembered that he had locked his door. As Luke swung his legs over the edge of his bed, he saw that the food he had brought in was sitting untouched on the bookshelf across from his bed, unopened and unmoved. He had been hungry originally, but lost his appetite after the small scene went down.

Peeking through the blinds that were separated by his index and middle finger, he looked out to the backyard to see if his bonfire party was still going. Much to his expectations, everyone was still out there, having a good time. He didn't expect less. The only one not having a good time was him, but that was okay. He would rather be spending his time alone and catching up on his sleep, even if he wasn't sleeping at that exact moment.

Curious as to what time it was and how long he had been passed out, Luke quit looking out at the party happening before him and grabbed his phone from the nightstand, clicking the home button to light up the bright screen. He was surprised that he had only been asleep for an hour and half when it felt like he had slept for days. Well, not that long, but he was feeling well rested. Something that he hasn't particularly felt in a long time. He had missed it though, that was for sure.

As Luke set his phone down and planned on getting back into the bed, there was a knock on the door and then a jiggling of the door handle. Confused, Luke just decided to ignore it. He was probably just imagining something scary happening because everyone was down at the bonfire, even Harry and Lauren, who he would've thought had went to bed by now considering that it was close to midnight.

"Luke, open up. It's me, Ashton," a voice said and then another jiggling of the door handle came.

Luke let out a sigh of relief, happy that he wasn't starting to imagine things or that Michael and Calum decided to beeline it to the bedroom to pester the poor boy. Luke got up and went to open the door, revealing a tired looking Ashton. "Can I help you? I'm trying to sleep."

"Y-yeah, there's something that I need to tell you."

\----


	16. Chapter 16

Luke let Ashton in, judging by the look on the boy's face that it was important. Luke shut the door behind him and then got back into his bed, making himself comfortable. Ashton took a seat next to him on the foot of the bed, his back facing Luke. He had never seen Ashton look as bothered as he did at that moment. It was worrying him. Did Calum or Michael say something? Did John threaten him?

"Ashton, what's wrong?" Luke finally asked, anxious to find out what was wrong with his friend. "Are you hurt?"

Ashton shook his head, still avoiding looking at Luke. "N-No. There's just, I need to tell you something."

"Okay. Could you do me the kindness of looking at me though?" Luke pleaded. The boy looked at Luke with twinkly hazel eyes. "Now, tell me what's on your mind. If it was Michael or Calum, I'll happily beat the shit out of them. They're most likely leaving soon anyway."

"What? Why?" Ashton asked, casually changing the subject since he didn't want to say anything.

"Because Calum and I kind of got into a falling out earlier and he's probably going to force Michael into leaving with him since he doesn't want to create any more friction," Luke explained, rolling his eyes at the end.

"It wasn't because of me, was it?" the wavy haired boy wondered.

"Well, it had to do with you. I wouldn't tell them why or what you had wanted to talk to me about and all of that happy crap," he told him. "Enough about them. I want to know about you. What's going on, Ash? You can talk to me, you know that."

Ashton looked into Luke's eyes and felt himself lose whatever it was he was going to say. "Um, I just...I feel like I made things weird."

Luke just gave a half-hearted chuckle. "No, you didn't. We already talked about this, Ashton. Nothing is weird. We're still friends. You just happen to have more than friend feelings for me. That's fine. Shit we can't control happens."

Ashton just smiled slightly, knowing that wasn't what he wanted to tell Luke, but he felt that he didn't know that. Luke nudged him with a smirk. "Did you just came up here because you missed me?"

"Oh, definitely. I was starting to go into withdrawals," Ashton joked.

"Figured you were," Luke chuckled.

The two sat in silence for a moment, not knowing what to say to each other. It wasn't necessarily awkward, but both boys knew that they were both at a loss for words. Suddenly, the draft from the air conditioning vents filled the room, making both of them shiver.

"How the hell do you survive in here? It's cold," Ashton asked Luke.

"I don't know. It usually isn't this cold, but then again, I'm usually passed out and don't notice," Luke said.

Luke lifted the covers, sliding under them and wrapping himself up like a burrito. Ashton sat there awkwardly, cold and not sure if that was his cue to leave or not. He took at as that and went to get up, only for Luke to lightly kick his leg. Luke was holding up part of the blanket and patting the spot next to him, inviting Ashton to warm up and cuddle. He didn't care about the fact that Ashton had a crush on him. Friends cuddle.

 

"Are you sure?" Ashton asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Of course. Friends cuddle, so get your ass over here so we can warm the hell up," Luke insisted.

Luke was happy when he saw Ashton smile and crawl into the bed next to him. As weird as it might be for his parents and Michael and Calum to find them like this tomorrow morning, Luke didn't care. He figured that it was time to stop hiding from them and tell them that Ashton was his friend and he wasn't going to give a shit whether they liked it or not.

Once Ashton was comfortable, Luke put his arm around the shorter boy's waist and cuddled him close to him. The two fit together like puzzle pieces and both had small true smiles on their faces, something that neither of them had held for a while. 

\----

When Luke woke up, he had expected to still be cuddling Ashton, but when he opened his eyes, they weren't greeted with the boy's fluffy hair. Nobody was next to him and he was still laying in the same position that he and Ashton had went to sleep in. He figured Ash just might have woken up early and wanted to get out before somebody found them laying there or John found out that Ashton hadn't went home. Luke could respect that. He would've done the same thing if he were him in their situation. 

Stretching, Luke figured that he would get ready and then go over to Ashton's to see why he left and to just visit with him since Michael and Calum were pricks. Not so much Michael, just Calum. He swung his legs over the bed and saw that neither of his friends (?) were sleeping in his room like they had been. He was thankful that they didn't know where the spare key was to get into the room when it was locked. Even though he wanted to tell them about his friendship with Ashton, he wasn't necessarily ready and he came to the conclusion that it probably wouldn't have gone over well if they would've found him and Ashton cuddling in bed. 

Even if they shouldn't assume about sexuality, they would. 

He went over to his closet and grabbed out a band t-shirt and one of his many athletic shorts. He didn't bother fixing his hair other than to brush it nicely. He closed the closet and unlocked his bedroom door, going out into the rest of the house. 

After being locked in a bedroom for the majority of the night, Luke instantly regretted leaving it. He actually enjoyed the solitude and isolation, even if he had let in Ashton. But he knew Ashton wasn't going to give him any problems, so it wasn't a big interruption of peace. As he went through the living room, he saw Calum watching the telly tiredly and Michael sprawled out sleeping on the other. Luke had to will himself not to laugh at how ridiculous Michael had looked. 

As the blonde went into the kitchen, he was surprised that he didn't get a smart ass comment from Calum. He half-expected it, but at the same time, he didn't. Calum was one to poke jab comments at people he was angry at/angry at him. But he also sometimes gave them the silent treatment to see if they would cave and start talking to him because they felt "withdrawals". Michael and his mum and sister were the only ones who fell for it because they were ones that always wanted to talk. Luke had never really received it, but he knew that he could go forever and a day without having to talk to Calum. Luke wasn't much of a talker, so this was going to be easy as pie for him. 

Luke grabbed a bowl and some of the Hershey's flavored cereal, pouring himself a bowl. He grabbed out the milk, the cookies and cream flavored flakes slushing in the liquid. Figuring that since he was out of his room and didn't want to go back and make himself look like he was reclusing himself to avoid the two, Luke went out onto the deck. The birds were chirping and the small waves from the lake were splashing against the shore. It was all around pretty quiet, which was weird since one of Luke's family members was usually up raising hell about now. 

He took a seat in one of the chairs, propping his feet up on the other and started to eat his hardy breakfast. For some reason, he felt like everyone in his house was going to be against him because he had left the bonfire last night and Calum had probably made up the story about how he was such a little bitch. But he knew that Ashton was on his side at least. That's all that really mattered to him. 

When he was finished with his cereal, Luke got up and made his way back into the cabin to put his dirty bowl in the sink. But once he entered the kitchen, he jumped and let out a scared squeal-like sound. Liz looked back at him, an emotionless expression on her face. 

"Didn't know if you were up yet," Luke said, testing to see if she was angry.

"Yep. I am," Liz said with a sharp tone. "But since you house yourself in your room, I didn't think it would make much of a difference."

With that, Luke knew that the woman was pissed off. He took that as his invitation to go over to Ashton's and stay there for the day since he was the only one that wanted Luke around. The blonde put his bowl in the sink and checked his phone to let Ashton know that he was going to be there within a few minutes. 

"I'm going to, erm, take a walk. Don't wait up," Luke said, taking off out the door before his mother could protest.

He walked looked around his property before he walked through the path in the trees to make sure that nobody saw him going over to Ashton's because he didn't want to be questioned later. He hurried up to the front door, giving a few swift knocks on it, hoping that it would be Ashton answering it instead of any of his other family members. But of course, once the door was opened, John Irwin was standing there. 

"Hi, Luke. What brings you around here this morning?" John greeted, acting like the most innocent dad in the world. 

Luke looked him up and down quickly when he spotted cuts on the man's hand, specifically, his knuckles. "Just here to see Ashton. What happened to your hand? Looks pretty banged up."

"Oh, I just cut myself when I fell," he shrugged. "Looks worse than what it is."

"You know, that is the most lame excuse for abuse," Luke spat. 

John crinkled his forehead, trying to look confused at whatever it was that Luke was trying to accuse him of. "Excuse me? I'm not making up an excuse for anything. I really did slip on the stairs this morning. And abuse? I would never abuse my family. Or anyone for that matter."

"You're so full of shit," the blonde scoffed. 

"Do you just go around to people and accuse them of abusing their families? Tell me, who in my family would I abuse if I were to abuse them," John said angrily, crossing his arms across his chest. 

"I don't accuse people unless I know for sure. Explain to me why Ashton comes to me and tells me that you lock him in the house and abuse him for making a mistake?! People make mistakes and beating the shit out of them isn't going to stop it from happening," Luke explained, feeling his blood starting to boil. "So you can tell me all you want that you slipped this morning and cut up your knuckles, but I know that you abused someone in this house. I swear to God, I could beat the shit out of you right now for hurting Ashton."

"I would never hurt Ashton! He's my son and I love him too much to hurt him! Why would Ashton tell you shit like that?! I believe that you are mistaking Ashton for one of your other friends," John told Luke. "Maybe that's why your little friend hit my son. Because he doesn't know anything other than beating!" 

That was Luke's last straw. He wound up and punched John in the cheek. The man looked at Luke appalled, but Luke didn't give him much of a chance before he punched him again and again, knocking the father over. He continued to wail on him, yelling hateful things at the man. 

"Luke, stop!" Ashton cried and then the rest of the Irwin family appeared. "Luke, stop it, dammit!" 

Ashton grabbed Luke's arms and tried pulling him off, but Luke was being too stubborn to let loose. He wasn't about to let John get away with abusing Ashton. There was no way in hell that he would let that happen. Soon enough, Anne Marie and Ashton were both trying to pry Luke off of John and, unfortunately for Luke, succeeded. 

"What the hell do you think you're doing beating my husband?!" Anne roared, fire in the woman's eyes. 

"You don't want me to give him a taste of his own medicine?! After he abuses your son and you, you don't want him to feel the same pain?!" Luke answered, earning a confused look from Anne. 

"What? John doesn't abuse anyone in this house! He couldn't hurt a fly!" Anne erupted. 

Now it was Luke's turn to be confused. He turned to Ashton, who was knelt by John, making sure that the man was okay. "Ashton, please explain to me why you're mum is denying this?" 

"Ashton, why would you tell him such lies about your father?!" Anne asked, clearly upset. 

Ashton slowly stood up, looking scared and guilty as he looked between Luke and Anne. Luke was hoping to God that they were just playing stupid and Luke hadn't just beat up an innocent man. He didn't want them to be abused, but in this situation, he did. 

"Ashton, did I just beat your father for no reason?" Luke asked, hoping to get some sort of response from the boy. 

"Luke, I'm so sorry I lied to you."

\----


	17. Chapter 17

Luke didn't know what to say to Ashton. He thought, of all people, that he could trust him. The boy seemed so sincere when he said that he wanted to be friends, but it was only to lie to him. He had beaten an innocent man, thinking that he beat his family when he didn't hurt a soul. Luke committed a federal offense because he thought he was protecting one of his best friends and their family, but no. Luke was now viewed as an asshole and he may have created a bigger riff between the neighbors. They might as well just sell the cabin. It's brought more harm than good anyway.

"I'm so so sorry, Mrs. Irwin," Luke apologized, tears running down his face. He glared once more at Ashton and then turned around to leave.

"Luke, please. Let me explain!" Ashton called after him.

"Explain what, huh? There's nothing to explain! I just committed a crime because of your lie! You have to be some kind of fucked up to come up with something like that!" Luke screamed angrily back at him.

"Luke...I...just please. Hear me out," Ashton begged, sulking where he stood as he began to cry.

"Go to hell!" Luke cursed, flipping the boy that he thought was his friend off.

Luke walked up the porch stairs, just noticing that the majority of his family along with Calum and Michael had been standing there watching Luke and Ashton scream at each other. He didn't care, just pushing past them so he could go to his room for the rest of his summer holiday. This cabin idea was a mistake. His summer holiday being fun and relaxing was a lie. For all he knew, he was going to be sitting in juvie, charged with battery.

He slammed the door to his bedroom and collapsed onto his bed, bawling into his pillow. He was pretty sure that Michael and Calum were sitting and laughing at him, while his mum was most likely waiting to yell at him. There was no way that Luke was in the mood for that. He wanted to be alone.

\----

Luke had literally cried for a total of three hours, give or take a few minutes. He didn't think that it was possible to have that many tears. It wasn't a full-on bawl with the dramatic noise and all; it started out as bawling and then he just laid there as he looked out one of the many windows with tears continuously falling down his cheeks.

He was hurt by what Ashton had done, but he was the fool that fell for his façade. He should've known that Ashton wasn't going to change his ways of being an asshole. Luke mentally slapped himself for always giving people second chances. It pissed him off sometimes, this being one of those instances. He was honest with Ashton about Michael and Calum and how they were treating him. How he was willing to sneak behind his two (ex?) best friends' backs to be friends with him. Luke was willing to put his all into a friendship when Ashton only returned it with lies and deceit.

To be completely honest, he had a feeling that his parents were going to put the cabin up for sale at the end of the summer or, at the latest, the end of the year. All because of Luke and the drama that he had put them through. Inviting Michael and Calum was one of the biggest mistakes of his life as well. He didn't think that there would be any riffs between the three of them, but thanks to Ashton, there was. Thanks to Luke himself, there was. Now he may have lost the two as best friends or at least caused a wedge between them that might never get closed.

Instead of getting out of bed that day and going over to the Irwins' to meet them, he should've just stayed put and never have introduced himself. None of them would be in this mess. He wouldn't be potentially facing jail time or prison time because he beat an innocent father. All of the bad shit that happened wouldn't have happened if Luke would've just decided to stay locked up in his peaceful bedroom like he had wanted to do.

Ashton didn't even like him to begin with, so what in Luke's mind told him that the boy suddenly would? There wasn't any inkling that Ashton was wanting to be friends with him. There wasn't any inkling for any of the shit that Ashton had told him! Well, other than the fact that Ashton might've been a hell-child. He wouldn't doubt that if all the kid did was make up big ass stories about people. And the shit about Ashton having a crush on him? That was sure as hell all bullshit as well! Why would Ashton tell him that anyway? Probably to get more attention onto him. That's exactly why.

Ashton Irwin was an attention whore.

Tears brimmed Luke's pained eyes as he thought about how stupid he was for falling for it. The guilt and his conscience were also consuming him, knowing that he probably gave serious injuries to John and that the police could be showing up on his doorstep at anytime. There was nothing he could do to deny it. He did it and the police or the jury or whoever wasn't going to believe him when he says that it was all because of some fabrication! Ashton certainly wasn't going to help cover Luke's ass - if anything, he would come up with something to make the blonde sound even more evil because of the press he would get. Ashton would become known as the hero who exposed the Devil's Spawn. He would get exactly what he wanted.

Attention.

Scaring Luke out of his thoughts, there was a few quick knocks on his door. He didn't want to let whoever it was on the other side in. People were the last thing Luke wanted to see or deal with. If it was the FBI, then they would just have to break their way in because Luke wasn't about to get up and be exactly welcoming.

The knocking came again and then whoever it was tried to turn the door knob to get in, but Luke was smart and locked it when he stormed in. He wasn't about to leave his door open so unwanted visitors would just barge in like they owned the place - even if 2/6 of them did.

"Luke, can you please let me in? I just want to know if you're okay," Liz said through the door, not sounding as hot and bothered as she did when Luke had talked to her before he left for Ashton's.

Luke rolled his eyes as he got out of the bed, his body slightly stiff from lack of movement. He went over to the door, unlocking it and yanking it open to see his short blonde mother standing in front of him. Luke left the door open and turned around, going back over to his bed, not even bothering to turn the light on. He was happy with the darkness.

"Luke, babe, are you alright?" she asked quietly as she entered the room. "I know I wasn't the kindest to you when you left, but I'm sorry. I just want to know what happened."

"Surprised that Anne didn't tell you," Luke scoffed.

"Well, she did...a little bit, anyway. But I want to hear from you. She doesn't know the entire story. She told me that," Liz said, taking a seat on the foot of Luke's bed. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm not mad. I'll try not to get mad, but you have to tell me what exactly happened. And please tell me why you were even over there in the first place. I'm sure that wasn't the reason - I know you a hell of a lot better than that."

Luke took a deep breath before he told her what had changed and what had happened during that time and that was why he and his other two friends haven't been getting along. He told her that they also didn't know that he and Ashton had been hanging out with one another, so that was also causing conflict in the triangle. She seemed to understand, unlike Luke had originally thought would've happened. He expected her to storm in and behead him because of what had happened and would've cared less about everything else.

"- and I found out he lied. I honestly thought that John was an abusive parent because of how serious Ashton was when he told me. And everything that he said about John not letting him out of the house sounded right because I had seen him yelling at him when we went boating that day. And he didn't come over for the bonfires and he was hiding behind the firewood and would only sneak in. It just...it made sense. He made sure it made sense so I would fall for it," Luke explained, tearing up as he told her. "Because of that asshole, I lost my two best friends."

"No, you didn't," Liz said quietly. Luke looked up at her as she rubbed his back.

"What do you mean?" Luke wondered.

"They were so concerned when you were screaming at Ashton. They knew that something was wrong and they wanted to follow you in here. They would've too if I wouldn't have stopped them. If you tell them everything that you just told me, they'll understand. Sure, they might not be too pleased with the fact that you felt you had to sneak behind their backs in order to be friends with someone, but if they're your true blue friends, they won't get too hung up on it," Liz explained to him. "And what happened with Ashton is terrible. It's honestly very wrong of him to done that and make you believe that about his family. He's exactly what you said - an attention whore. I don't like that word normally, but there's no other term for it. It's a sad thing because Anne and John are nice people. I like them a lot, but their son just happens to have to ruin it for us."

"Are they mad at me?" Luke squeaked out.

"I'm sure they're a bit shocked at what you did, especially John. But I'm sure once they hear what really happened and why you attacked him, they'll understand why. But I have a feeling that Ashton will be grounded for centuries after that, if not now. Anne said something about hearing that Ashton lied, so I imagine that he's already gotten in some trouble," his mum comforted.

The mother and son were quiet for a few minutes, not knowing what else to say. Luke was happy to know that Michael and Calum weren't downright pissed at him like he had thought they were. He didn't lose their friendships - at least, not yet. He didn't really plan on it either. He was also hoping that Anne had given Ashton one of the worst punishments known to teenagers. The asshole deserved it.

"I do think that you should go over to the Irwins' and apologize though. Just so they know that you aren't someone who goes around beating people. And also explain to them what the real story was. It's the least they deserve," Liz suggested.

Luke nodded, knowing that she was right. "Can we do it, like, tomorrow night or something? I really don't want to see Ashton right now."

"I don't think you're going to want to see Ashton tomorrow night either. I actually don't think you're going to want to see him ever again. But yeah, I can see if they're willing to do tomorrow night. And if you want, It can just be you, me, and your dad. We don't have to bring your brothers or Michael and Calum if you don't want," Liz said.

"Okay."

"Okay. Why don't you clean yourself up and then maybe talk to Calum and Michael? Clear the air and become best friends again so we can have a few laughs over dinner. You're dad wanted to make steaks," Liz offered.

"That sounds yummy," Luke agreed, earning a ruffle of his hair and a kiss on his forehead before his mum got up and left the room.

Thankfully, she had turned the light on before she left, so Luke could just walk over to his closet and pick out something that was halfway decent to wear. What he had on made him feel dirty and vulnerable - he was probably going to take a second shower for the day to make himself feel clean again. He picked out a hoodie and his royal blue and yellow basketball shorts, taking it with him into his bathroom so he could wash up.

He hung the clean clothes on the back of the bathroom door and then went over, starting the shower with hot water. He shed his dirty clothes, kicking them to the opposite corner of the bathroom. Once he felt that the water was ready enough, he got in and let the hot water trickle down his body, making him feel clean and free of the filth of lies and vulnerability that he felt.

\----

Andy had started the steaks just minutes before Luke got out of the shower, hopefully giving him enough time to talk to Michael and Calum beforehand. He felt bad for having almost ended their friendships for someone who just wanted to hurt him and he felt like an idiot for it. He was an idiot for it. Michael and Calum were much better best friends - and continued to prove it - than Ashton could ever be. In fact, he probably wishes he was like them. They were best friend goals.

Luke walked out of his bedroom and found his two best friends playing a game of FIFA with each other. He felt bad to interrupt, but based on what Liz had told him, they wouldn't give less of a shit if they had to quit playing. Awkwardly, he walked over to the couch that Calum was sitting on and took his place at the opposite end. The two noticed he was in the room and continued to the play, just not chuckling about whatever it was that was funny.

Just as Luke was about to get up and leave, Calum stopped him. He looked up and saw that the game was paused and all eyes were on Luke. "Where are you going?"

"I didn't want to, erm, interrupt you guys, so..." Luke trailed, sounding so awkward. He couldn't remember ever stumbling over his words like that in front of those two.

"Well, you're not! We just wanted to finish that play quick. So quit being all awkward and get your skinny white ass over here and talk to us," Michael invited.

Luke did as told and sat back down, this time on the couch cushion directly next to Calum so it would be easier to talk to them. He told them everything that he had told his mother just twenty minutes prior. They didn't show any signs of being angry, much to Luke's satisfaction. That's what he had feared the most. He didn't want them to be mad at them, even though he deserved it with his stupid actions. They were both listening to him intently, absorbing every word he said. Luke admired that about Michael and Calum. They were amazing listeners and Luke could only hope to be as understanding as them.

"You know, if you had wanted to be friends with him, you didn't have to sneak behind our backs. You could've told us and we would've lived with it," Michael told him. "But I guess I get why you did. We were kind of mean towards him."

"Yeah...but we only said it in front of you because we thought you felt the same way. Just know that we would've kept the rude comments to ourselves," Calum agreed. "And I'm sure we would've gotten to like him. But now, I don't think that there is a chance in hell that any of us will become friends with him again."

Luke gave them a half-smile. "Thank you for understanding. I thought you guys would hate me. I actually thought you did hate me after last night."

"We could never hate you. Without you, we're the two best friends and that isn't the way the song goes," Michael said. "It would be a disgrace to Alan and The Hangover."

The three boys laughed and continued chatting like their fight from yesterday had never happened. It got Luke thinking to the previous night, trying to think of what had even led to their argument. But all Luke could think of was how Ashton had came in and cuddled with him for the night. How he was friends with the boy yesterday and completely oblivious to what was being said. It made his eyes slightly well up because he had been fooled. He thought Ashton was a good dude, one that genuinely cared about him. But he was wrong.

"Luke, you okay?" Calum asked, waving his hand in front of the boy's face.

"Yeah, just thinking."

"Quit thinking," Michael instructed. "Let's add Team Breadstick to this FIFA game."

"Team Breadstick? What the hell, Clifford?" Luke chuckled.

"Look in the mirror, son. Youse a breadstick."

\----


	18. Chapter 18

Tonight was the night that Luke was going over to the Irwins to apologize to John for going ape shit and punching him. Liz and Andy were joining him while his brothers went to some party and Calum and Michael stayed in to play yet another game of FIFA. Luke wished that he could stay and play the game with them, but he knew that he had to make this right. He felt so guilty for hurting an innocent person. He couldn't believe that he truly thought that John would lay a finger on his family wrong. If anything, he was a true family man that would go out of his way and take a bullet for them instead of hurting them. It disgusted Luke that Ashton would make up such a lie about someone that was so genuine.

But Luke was also nervous. Luke didn't like when people were mad at him, especially people he cared about. Sure, he didn't know John or Anne that well, but they were sweet and loving neighbors and Luke didn't want them to hate him or be mad at him, although he knew that they had every right to be. If he were John, there would be an everlasting hate. Nobody likes to get beat for no reason, so why should they like the attacker? Hell, why should they even forgive the attacker?

The three got to the front door and Luke hesitated before he knocked. Liz put her hand softly on Luke's bicep. "It'll be okay, Luke. I promise you."

Luke just nodded, knowing that his mother was right. She always was. There was no reason to be scared of the Irwins. He knew that they wouldn't hurt him to get revenge. They had too big of hearts - other than Ashton. His was just non-existent. Or as the Grinch would say, it was two sizes too small. But The Grinch probably had a bigger heart than Ashton ever did.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Luke brought his hand up and knocked quickly on the door, taking a gulp. He wanted to turn around and run, but his parents would have definitely caught him like fly paper. He would also regret it because he knew that in order to gain John and Anne's forgiveness - mostly John's - he would have to apologize and talk to the man. Luke was making it sound worse than what it was going to be, something he was good at doing. He knew that it wasn't going to be the equivalent of being put into prison, so he needed to quit telling himself that.

Anne then opened the door, a small smile on her face as she was faced with Luke. "Hello, Luke. Liz, Andy. Come in. John and I are in the living room."

Anne walked back into the house and the Hemmings' followed. When they got into the living room, thankfully, it was just John sitting in the recliner. Luke cringed and felt a stab of guilt as he saw the bruised up man sitting there. But despite all of what had happened, John smiled at Luke and got up from the chair and gestured to the empty couch in front of them. Luke sat between his parents and John and Anne sat in the recliners across the way.

"Before you say anything, Luke, I wanted to applaud you. Most of the people I know, teenagers anyway, wouldn't have had the gall to come back and apologize for something such as this. It takes a man to take responsibility like this. Your parents should be proud of you, Luke," John said confidently, shocking Luke completely. He didn't think that the man would praise him like that. He was expecting to be yelled at.

"Um, thank you, Mr. Irwin," Luke thanked, choking on his words. "I just wanted to say that I am deeply sorry for hurting you. I didn't mean to and I wouldn't have done that if I would've known the truth. I know that I should've guessed that you wouldn't have done what you were accused of, but you just never know anymore. And I shouldn't have taken it into my hands anyway. You're not my father and it wasn't effecting me. I feel so much guilt about this, Mr. Irwin. I truly am sorry."

John just nodded, taking in what Luke had said. He looked down at his hands and then his eyes met Luke's again. "I accept your apology, Luke. I know that you wouldn't have normally done that. From what I have seen and from what your parents have told me, you're a good kid and you wouldn't hurt a fly, which I believe. And I'm not mad at you for believing what you were told. You're right; you don't know anymore. You would've had no way of knowing whether or not I abused my family because you've never lived here or have been here if something like that were to occur. But I can assure you that I am not an abuser. My family is golden to me and means too much to me to hurt and push away. I would be nothing without them.

"But, Luke, I also understand why you did what you did. I would've done the same thing as well. I hate child abusers with a burning passion and if one of my friends was going through that, I would probably lose my cool too. I also want to give you props for that. Not many people would do something like that to stand up for their friend, but you did. That takes guts, kid."

Luke didn't understand why he would congratulate him, but at the same time, he did. He didn't expect for John to forgive him that easily or to understand any of the things that he said he did. Luke thought for sure that he was on John's shit list, but maybe he wasn't. It was...reassuring.

"Luke, I know that Ashton is the last person that you want to see, but since we're talking everything out, we might as well get this conversation out of the way. Despite being angry, I'm sure you have many questions for him," Anne said sincerely.

Luke just nodded, not wanting to say anything because what he was going to say was not at all nice. He figured that it was best to just bite his tongue until Ashton came out and he could drill him with questions and demand him to give him answers. Luke was determined to find out the truth from Ashton and why he thought it was smart to lie to him. He was also determined to make it known that their friendship was no longer.

Anne got up from her chair and went down the hall towards Ashton's room. Luke mentally prepared himself and told himself to maintain his self control when the boy would appear. He knew that he could do it, but that would require Ashton to take responsibility for being an idiot and not act like an oblivious fool as to why they're not friends anymore.

Minutes later, Mrs. Irwin reappeared with Ashton in tow. Ashton was looking down at the floor, but Luke could see the guilt on the wavy haired boy's face. The ottoman between John and Anne's served as Ashton's seat. The boy set his chin on his hands and didn't look up at Luke or any of the Hemmings'. Instead, his eyes stayed trained on the carpet as if it were about to do tricks. Luke was happy that the kid felt guilty and hoped that the guilt would eat him alive. For telling such a hurtful lie like that, Ashton deserved it.

"Ashton, we have guests," Anne told him, her tone sounding a bit sharp.

"Hello," the boy mumbled, his eyes flickering up quickly to the three and then back down to the carpet.

Anne gave Luke a look and a nod, giving him the go-ahead to start talking to him. Luke returned the nod and fixed an intense glare down on Ashton, hoping that it was making the smaller boy feel uncomfortable. "Why did you lie to me?"

Ashton shifted uncomfortably and just shrugged, not bothering to look up at Luke. That made Luke's blood begin to boil. If he was going to act like this, shit was bound to hit the fan. It angered Luke to no end if the person was going to give him half-assed answers and not talk to him when he wanted answers. He expected the person to cooperate and he wasn't about to play 20 Questions with him. It wasn't worth it and he wasn't going to put up with it.

"That's unacceptable. I want an answer, Ashton. You claim to have a crush on me and you were my friend and you act like your my best friend and then I find out you lied to me? I'm not going to put up with this shrugging and the bullshit answers. I expect you to give me the truth. I think I deserve that. I think we all deserve that," Luke demanded, his words sharp and harsh.

Ashton was silent, of course. But then the boy looked up. "I lied to you because I wanted you to be my friend, okay?! I wasn't going to continue the lie, but you cared and I liked how that made me feel. That's why I continued. You cared and I liked it."

Luke was shocked but he expected that answer from him. He appreciated it, but now he didn't know how to respond to it. He hated this type of shit.

\----


	19. Chapter 19

"If you wanted me to care, you didn't have to lie. You didn't even have to say that to begin with. I would've cared about you whether your dad abused you or not. I'm not that soulless," Luke finally said.

Ashton kept avoiding Luke's eyes and he knew that the boy was uncomfortable being put on the spot. Luke didn't care though. He was going to get the truth out of him and if that meant this confrontation would end with Ashton crying, then so be it. Luke knew that both sets of parents were going to let that happen if it had to. They were just as pissed as Ashton since he hurt more people than just Luke.

"I don't know what you want me to say. I told you why I did it, so you can quit implying that I'm a terrible person," Ashton spat.

"Ashton! Don't you understand that what you did was terrible?! You told me that your dad abused you and tortured you, when he really didn't. What if I would've broke my promise and told my parents or brothers or Calum and Michael about that? Do you think that the police wouldn't have gotten involved? Do you know how much shit you would be in then?! How much shit your parents would be in for doing absolutely nothing?! I think that them finding out your lie the way they did was better than finding it out in a court room or with the police. If he would've gotten a chance to even explain," Luke explained, hoping that Ashton felt guilty for even thinking up the bullshit in the first place.

"You think I didn't know that?! I know that what I did was stupid and unacceptable! I know how child abuse goes over with the police and it's my word against his and they wouldn't believe me if I told them the truth. I know that they hate me, I know that you hate me...I don't care! I really don't give a flying fuck whether or not any of you hate me! I'm the Spawn of Satan, okay?! I get it! You don't need to keep telling me that! Dad, I'm sorry that I said that about you. Mum, I'm sorry that you had to get involved with it too. I'm just sorry for my existence, alright?!" Ashton exploded, tears running down his cheeks.

Before anyone could say anything more, Ashton stormed off towards his room, slamming the door shut. Both families were quiet and unmoving. The silence that was left hanging in the air was one of the most awkward that anyone can feel. Luke knew that the Irwins had to feel like the most embarrassed people on the face of the earth. What do you say after your child has an explosion like that? And Luke's parents weren't going to say anything because they didn't know what to say. Luke felt like it was his fault because he pushed Ashton to that point, but at the same time, he was glad he did because he was satisfied knowing that the guilt was eating the boy alive. That's all he wanted and he was sure that was all his parents wanted deep down.

"Did you get your answers, Luke?" Anne asked, her voice more soft and quiet than usual.

"Yes. Thank you," he replied, eyes flickering between John and Anne. Each family stood up and started towards the front door. Luke turned to John, sticking his hand out. "I'm sorry again. Thank you for accepting my apology."

"You're welcome, Luke. Thank you for taking responsibility," John said with a smile, grabbing Luke's hand and shaking it.

Liz, Andy, and Luke all filtered outside with their awkward goodbyes and walked back over to their own cabin. They didn't know whether or not they should talk about the visit or just let it go like nothing ever happened. Luke knew that he was going to have to talk about it with Michael and Calum. His brothers would probably pester his parents about it if they even cared. Either way, Luke just wanted to put it all behind him and move on with his summer holiday, forgetting that this ever happened and forgetting that Ashton ever existed as his neighbor. He wanted to have a fun summer with his two best friends at his side; not one where he was too hung up over losing a barely-there friend. It wasn't worth the tears, not after what he did anyway.

Once they got into the cabin, Michael and Calum were still playing FIFA. Luke couldn't help but snicker to himself because he wouldn't have expected anything else. Those two were addicted to that game like it was cocaine. Liz and Andy went off, leaving Luke alone with his friends. He collapsed on the couch next to Michael and watched as the two battled each other in the soccer game.

"So, how did it go?" Calum finally asked.

"It went. John or Anne aren't mad at me at all...they actually understood why I did it," Luke told them.

"What about Ashton? Was he there?" Michael wondered.

Luke explained all that went down just previously. The two thought that Ashton was trying to play the victim. With them pointing that out, Luke could guess that was what he was trying to do. Whether it worked or not was beyond him. He wasn't going to give the kid another chance. Once Luke's trust is betrayed, there's no doubt in his mind that he's not going to be friends with the person. There's no reason to put himself through that emotional train wreck.

\----

The next morning, Andy came into the boys' room and offered to take them out on the boat for the day. Luke thought of it as a way to get everything off of his mind. A day of tubing, waterskiing, being with the people he loved...it was going to be a perfect day.

With that motivation, each of the boys got up and hurried to get their trunks on. It didn't take that long since they knew where everything was, despite the room being a whirlwind mess. Luke let Michael and Calum fight over the swim trunks while he went out to the kitchen to grab one of the glazed donuts his dad had gotten for all of them that morning. When he got out there, Jack was spreading peanut butter on a piece of toast and whistling what sounded to be a Flo Rida song.

"Hey, shithead," Jack greeted when he noticed Luke.

"Morning, dick wad," Luke nodded.

"That was a good one," he praised. "Sleep well? Dream of killer Ashtons coming after you?"

"Really? Are you trying to ruin the day?" Luke asked, figuring that his parents told Ben and Jack already.

"I try to. I hear that it was a bittersweet deal. His parents got you and he went psycho," Jack said.

"Basically," Luke nodded. He wasn't wrong. "Anyway, did you sleep well? Hungover?"

"I got a whole three hours. And surprisingly, I'm not. Now Ben...Ben might be," Jack chuckled. "I would bet that dad's going to dump some water on his head or drag him out of his room by his ankles."

"I would pay to see that. It's been a while," Luke laughed. He liked when he could have playful banter with his brother and not be treated like an annoying teenager or a baby that wasn't old enough to understand what they were talking about when he actually did.

"That it has, Lukemeister. That it has," he agreed, taking a bite out of his donut.

Luke went into the donut box and grabbed his own donut, taking a big bite out of it. It had been so long since he had last had a donut...he couldn't even remember the last time that he had one. It tasted so good...he couldn't believe he hadn't had one in however long.

"You look like your going to have sex with that donut, Luke," Calum pointed out, shaking Luke out of his donut thoughts.

"If so, could you please go in the bathroom or something? I really don't want to see that shit," Michael laughed.

"Little brother...I knew you were weird, but not that weird," Jack laughed.

"Shut up! I haven't had a donut in a long time and I'm enjoying it!" Luke whined. He wasn't going to live this one down.

Before anyone could give him anymore shit, Andy came in the room. "Who's ready to go?"

They all went down to the boat and hopped on, the coolers and tubes already on board. He was actually surprised to see Ben ready and helping Andy out. Liz was seated in her usual seat, applying sunscreen to her arms. Luke, Michael, and Calum took the back bench seat and got comfortable while Jack crawled onto one of the front benches and laid down with his fisherman's hat covering his face.

"Thought you weren't hungover, Jack?" Luke asked in a teasing voice.

Jack just responded with a flip of his middle finger and Liz scolded him. The three best friends found that to be hilarious and busted into laughter. Andy and Ben got onto the boat and took their seats. Andy traded in his fisherman's hat for a captain's hat, making everyone on the boat roll their eyes.

"Really, Andy? Where on earth did you get that?" Liz asked, shaking her head in disapproval.

"7-11's have some amazing things," Andy said, a proud smile on his face.

As Andy backed the boat out and started to drive by Ashton's, Luke looked over. He remembered the last time he did and regretted feeling the least bit sorry for him. But now as he looked over, he saw Lauren and Harry in the yard, playing a game of soccer, Anne watering the flowers, and Ashton sitting in the window, looking out at them. Luke wanted to look away so he wouldn't make eye contact with Ashton, but he couldn't bring himself to like last time. That's when Ashton looked up, the saddest look on his face as he looked out at Luke.

For a minute, Luke felt guilty.

\----


	20. Chapter 20

It had been a few days since the apology to John and Anne and the confrontation with Ashton. Luke hadn't seen hide nor hair of the Irwins since then, not that he was looking to. If anyone else were in his position, they would be happy that they didn't have to see them and could finally have a normal summer. While Luke was grateful that the stressing part of the summer holiday was over, he was also being driven insane by his own thoughts and conscience. 

He felt guilty about what he had said to Ashton and how hurt and pained the boy sounded when he gave Luke an answer. There was the fact that Ashton was starving for outside affection and Luke had been giving that to him. Ashton sounded like a deeply hurt individual from what he said and apologizing for existence and that everyone hated him. That's what bothered Luke. He hated when someone was that sad - or appeared that way. He couldn't stand for it and all he wanted to do was give that sad person a reason to smile, even if it were to only be for a few seconds. It was in Luke's nature to want to help that person, be their shoulder to lean on...anything to help that person feel better. 

But then reality hit and he remembered that Ashton lied to him. He couldn't trust him as far as he could spit. Luke's trust was not to be broken because he wasn't easy when it came to giving forgiveness. After he lost trust, he put up thick walls and it took a lot to trust the person again. He went from being a warm and responsive person to being avoidant and rejecting. 

Sometimes, Luke hated who he was. 

His mind was literally split on what to do and he was trying to overcome his caring and compassionate side, but he knew that that side would eventually win. Who knows what would happen if Luke were to never speak to Ashton again? Knowing that the boy may be fragile, that scared Luke. He didn't care if he didn't like him or not, he wanted to just make sure that he was okay. 

"Where the hell are you off to? You look like you're on a mission," Michael pointed out. 

Luke looked down and realized that he was almost already to the door. The three of them had been playing around with the cheap acoustic guitars that Liz had picked up from a thrift sale since it was raining and they were locked in Luke's room. But Luke had other priorities it seemed. He looked back at Michael, who was just looking at him confused and concerned. 

"Are you okay, Luke?" the boy asked. "Where are you going?" 

"Ashton's."

"Why? I thought you were done with him because he ruined you-" Michael started.

"I need to talk to him, Michael," Luke cut him off. 

Michael's shoulders dropped. He knew how unhealthy Ashton was for Luke and wanted to stop the boy from going, but knew how stubborn Luke was. "It's raining, Luke."

"I don't care. I'm going to Ashton's."

Before Michael or Calum could ask him anything else or protest anymore, Luke was out of the room and already into the drab outdoors. He knew that his compassion would get the best of him and he hated that he inherited that from Liz. He blamed Liz for a lot of things when it came to his personality. He wished that he was like Ben and Jack and was too much of an asshole for their own good. His life would be so much simpler. 

He got to the Irwins red front door and hesitated before knocking on it. He didn't know if it was such a good idea to be doing this, but he knew that he should. He had to. So, Luke knocked three times quickly and waited a few minutes before the door opened and John was standing before him, a confused yet pleased smile on his face. 

"Fancy seeing you here, Luke. What can I do for you?" John asked. 

"Is Ashton here?" Luke asked quickly. 

John quirked his eyebrow, now just confused. "Ashton? May I ask what you need from him?"

"I just need to talk to him. My conscience is eating me alive. It won't take long, I promise. It's just for some closure," Luke said. 

John stood there for a minute, pondering what Luke had told him. But instead of moving out of the way to let the blonde inside, the man shook his head. "I'm afraid that's not the best idea, Luke. I know that your last encounter wasn't the best way to end things and I can imagine that closure is the only way to get that inner voice to be quiet, but I just think that it would be easier and best for the both of you if you just let it go. In time, your mind will be at ease. I'm sorry, Luke."

Luke stood there, absorbing John's words. He knew that John was right. "He is okay though?"

"He's fine. Well, as fine as a grounded teenager can be," John said. "Go on home, Luke. You're going to get sick if you stand out here any longer."

Luke bid him goodbye and hurried back home. Hopefully, just knowing that Ashton was okay would be enough for Luke to have his conscience stop eating him. He also knew that the likelihood of being allowed to talk to Ashton was now impossible. He just had to believe and hope that Ashton wouldn't do anything harmful to himself. With that in mind, he knew that his conscience would quit bothering him and keeping him up at night. 

But ultimately, he had to forget about Ashton's existence.

Cringing at the last thought that ran through his mind, he went back into his room where Michael was mumbling the words to a We The Kings song and Calum was tuning one of the other guitars. When Luke closed the door, both of the boys looked up at him in unison. It actually looked rehearsed, but it wasn't and that's what made Luke internally chuckle at the action.

"That was fast," Michael said, not elaborating on the subject. 

"I didn't talk to him. I talked to John and he said that it would be best for me if I wouldn't speak to Ashton again," Luke explained in a nutshell. 

Neither Michael or Calum said anything, not knowing if they should or not. They didn't know the situation and only knew the asshole Ashton they had encountered, so their opinions on it were rather invalid. They knew that he couldn't have been that bad of a person because Luke actually did consider him somewhat of a friend at one point, so they didn't want to say something negative about him and make Luke angry. It was a hard stance to take. 

"What are you guys playing?" Luke asked, happy to change the subject.

"I was attempting Check Yes, Juliet and Calum was...Caluming," Michael said. 

"I was tuning, but apparently, that is now considered to be apart of Caluming," Calum laughed, finishing fine tuning the guitar.

\----

It was nearing dinner time. Well, it was nearly nine o'clock, but that was a typical dinner time in the Hemmings' household. Michael, Calum, and Luke had been locked in Luke's room all day, playing the guitars and attempting to sing. They weren't bad singers, but they always sang like a cat being squeezed to death. It was a wasted talent, but it caused for a fun time.

When they got out to the dinner table that they never used since they were always eating outside at the picnic table, Liz looked up from placing down the plates and smiled. "Hello, boys. I almost forgot that you were here."

"Oh, honey, they were the screaming goats," Andy pointed out, placing a plate of fresh hamburgers in the middle of the table.

Liz laughed. "I'm glad that you're all finding my thrift sale finds entertaining. And since when did you play the guitar, Luke?"

"I don't really. I know the basics and I just kind of play by ear," Luke shrugged, earning an impressed nod from his mum.

"You boys can have a seat and we'll finish putting dinner out," Liz instructed and then her eyes landed on her youngest son. "You're coming with me, mister."

Luke didn't say anything and just obeyed his mother, following the woman into the kitchen. She turned around and looked at him. Luke didn't know what she wanted. He hadn't done anything wrong. All he had done was sit in his room with his two best friends and fucked around on guitars. There was nothing too damaging in that.

"What were you doing over at Anne and John's house today?" Liz asked.

Of all things, Luke didn't expect her to ask him that. But he figured that Anne and Liz still conversed since nothing had happened between them. Word traveled fast.

"I wanted to talk to Ashton," he told her.

"Why? I thought you got your answers," she wondered.

"Closure."

"Closure? Luke, I know that you hate leaving things like that, but you need to. It's best if you two just stay away from each other for a while. And frankly, he's not good for you, Luke. He's a toxic and unhealthy friend to have, as sad as it is," Liz told him. "I don't want you to get hurt again. It's not the most pleasing thing for a mother."

"I just wanted to make sure that he was okay," he shrugged.

"I know, Luke. But he's going to be fine. I just don't want you going over there again, okay?" she requested, in which Luke nodded.

Luke knew that both adults were right in that it was best to basically forget about Ashton. But Luke himself wasn't okay with that. There was just something about Ashton that made Luke not want to forget about him. Despite the lies, Ashton and Luke were pretty good friends even if it was short-lived. Ashton was actually a pretty cool guy - or at least, he came across that way.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Luke knew that it had to be done. He just had to continue to let go of Ashton, the thought of Ashton, everything Ashton. He had never had to forget about someone, but he knew that it was going to be hard. Despite their short friendship, Luke had started to trust Ashton and was actually starting to open up to him. He knew that he was going to have to keep reminding himself of the betrayal.

It was going to be easier said than done.

\----


	21. Chapter 21

It was a sad day because Calum and Michael had to go home for a week or so. It wasn't Luke's doing because he was actually having fun with them around and relaxing and enjoying the summer holiday finally. It was because Calum's cousin, Marin, had passed away early that morning from the injuries she received in a car accident that was suspected to be the result of the other driver being under the influence. Calum had been close with his cousin Marin because she was the closest to him in age (other than his sister) when it came to the Hood side of the family.

Michael was going home with him because he didn't want Calum to be alone. Luke wanted to go, but Calum's family was staying at his home and there wouldn't be enough room for both Michael and Luke to stay in Calum's room. And Luke's parents weren't going to allow Luke to stay at their house alone because "he was a baby". They didn't say that, but they implied it. It hurt Luke because he wanted to be there for Calum just as much as Michael did. Luke didn't understand what losing someone felt like, but he knew that it wasn't fun and it felt like your heart was being torn in half. He wanted to be there to help Michael keep Calum's heart together while the boy mourned the loss of his second-sister.

Calum understood and knew that Liz and Andy weren't keeping Luke away just to be evil. He knew that they meant well and he knew that Luke wanted to be there for him as much as he could, which was much appreciated. To be honest, Calum was actually glad that it was only Michael going home with him. He loved Luke, but he knew that he would get overwhelmed and moody if both of them were catering to him and overcomforting him.

"We'll come back with you after the funeral, okay?" Calum said sadly, trying to give Luke a smile, but it was so obviously forced. He wanted Luke to understand that it was okay that he stayed, but the blonde wasn't having any of it. "Don't worry about it, Luke. It's not like you're just letting me rot. We'll be back together in four days. You can Skype us."

"That's not the same. You're my best friend and I'm supposed to comfort you in your time of mourn," Luke explained.

"Luke, it's okay. You'd comfort me by letting me just see your stupid smile over a shitty iPhone. And you'll be there for me when I need the most comfort at the funeral. Please don't feel guilty," Calum begged.

"I'll give him enough shit and comfort for the both of us," Michael said with a small smile.

Luke knew that he wasn't going to get anywhere by arguing, so he just rolled his watery eyes and nodded. He stepped forward and gave Calum a tight bear hug, not being able to control the tears that squeezed out of his eyes. He told him to give the family hugs and condolenses from him, which Calum agreed to. As Calum got into the car, Luke gave Michael a hug as well, while also telling him to make sure Calum is okay all the time.

Luke watched as Joy Hood's little red Prius backed out of the short driveway, Michael and Calum looking back at him and waving through the rear windshield. Even when the car was out of sight, Luke was standing in his driveway with his arms crossed. He now felt empty because there was something missing now. It was going to be just Luke fending for himself for the next three days when he could be back with Calum, doing his best friend duties.

He felt a few raindrops hit the top of his head and he turned to go back into his cabin. But as he turned, he was greeted with the face of Ashton looking at him from the neighboring yard as he waited for the dog to do its business. They held eye contact for a few long moments before Luke finally broke it and went back inside.

The house was now filled with silence instead of the sounds of FIFA and three teenage boys laughing or the sounds of guitars and three teenage boys trying to sing. Luke didn't want to talk to his mum, who was in the kitchen preparing lunch, so he went back into his now messy bedroom where the guitars were leaning against the wall and picks were scattered about on the floor, along with random pairs of each of the boys' boxers. He should've guessed that they would somehow mix up their underwear.

Luke plopped back onto his bed, grabbing one of the guitars and started to strum it a little bit. He tried to play the My Chemical Romance song that he, Michael, and Calum had taught themselves, but it didn't sound nearly the same as it did with all three guitars. It was only Luke and his squeally voice instead of the three squeally voices.

Instead of mourning Marin, Luke was mourning the absense of his best friends.

\----

"Michael, you cheated!" Luke shouted into the gaming microphone.

"No, you're just slow," Michael chuckled.

The three almost forgot that they had their xBox headsets that they could game with each other and Skype and all of that fun stuff on. But for the time being, it was just Michael and Luke. Michael claimed that Calum was taking a nap, but Luke knew better than that. Calum was crying in private or was sulking in mourning. Luke understood why he would be, being surrounded by oodles of sad family members. It was probably especially depressing in the house because the funeral was tomorrow. It sounded terrible, but Luke couldn't wait for it, only because he could comfort his best friend and be there for him.

Before Luke could say anything to Michael, Liz was calling from the other room. Luke just rolled his eyes, not wanting to talk to his mother. He still wasn't pleased that she didn't allow Luke to go home with his friends.

"My mum is calling me. I'll be right back," Luke told Michael as he took off the headset.

He went out into the oddly quiet living room to find his mother reading a magazine on the couch. She looked back as he walked in, a small smile on her face. "Welcome to life outside your bedroom. Can you do me a favor?"

"What?" he wondered, hoping that it wouldn't take long.

"Can you go help your father move the wood pile? I keep hearing things crashing and I'm worried the man is going to end up breaking something," she requested.

Luke nodded by default since he couldn't say no to a favor without a fight. He went to the back door, sliding on his brother's ugly bright blue Crocs. He went outside, finding that it was cloudy and slightly cold out. His dad was struggling to carry a pile of wood towards the house, his black jacket getting full of woodchips.

"S'pose your mother sent you out here," Andy panted as he dropped the pile of wood in the new place.

"She thought you were going to break something," Luke said tonelessly.

"You need to brighten up, kid. I know you're not happy about having to stay here, but being angry about it isn't going to get you anywhere," Andy told him, pulling his dad mindset out.

Luke didn't say anything and just started off towards the old woodpile. He wasn't in the mood to listen to his dad lecture him about his moodswings. He just wanted to be left alone and go back to playing his game with Michael.

"Just move that pile over to here. I'll be right back out; I'm going to get a glass of water," Andy instructed his son.

As Andy went up the stairs and into the house, Luke did the manual labor of lifting the small pieces of wood that were actually quite hefty and moved them back and forth. It wasn't Luke's ideal job, but he was going to hurry and get it over with so he could lock himself away again. Luke was so concentrated on his own thoughts that he jumped when he looked up to see Ashton standing behind the woodpile.

"Holy hell. What are you doing here?" Luke asked, his hand hovering over his heart as a scare reaction.

"I'm sorry, Luke."

Luke raised his eyebrows and went back to what he was doing. "It's a little late now."

"You know that I didn't do it with intentions to hurt you. Why can't you get over the grudge?" Ashton asked.

"You lied to me. You broke my trust and when my trust is broken, I don't take that very lightly. It's important to me and once you've lost it, it's gone," Luke spat at him. "I don't know if anything you say is true or if it's just a fucking joke."

Ashton's shoulders fell. "That was the only thing that was untrue that came out of my mouth was that my dad abused me. Envy thing else was real. Luke, you really are a good friend and I really do have a crush on you. Like trust is to you, intimate feelings are to me. I'm not just going to say I have a crush on you for shits and giggles. When I say it, I mean it. I don't know how else to prove to you that I'm sorry and that I will never do it again. You think I don't feel bad enough about lying to someone that I think so highly of? Even if there were a way to earn your trust back, you wouldn't have it because you're too fucking stuck in your ways to think about somebody other than yourself and your stupid friends. So, when you pull your head out of your ass, you know where the fuck to find me."

Ashton took off after that, leaving Luke lost for words.

\----


	22. Chapter 22

Luke wrapped his arms tightly around Calum, trying to make up for the days he was away from his mourning friend. The boy was shaking as he cried into Luke's shoulder and the blonde couldn't help but also shed a few tears. All three of them were crying messes in all honesty. Not only because they were attending the funeral and were mourning the loss of Marin, but also because their best friend was lost and broken. None of them wanted to see each other in a state like that. It broke both Michael and Luke's heart that they had to see Calum so broken up and vulnerable. 

"I'm sorry I got tears on your suit," Calum sniffled, breaking out of Luke's hug. He looked up at him with red outlined puffy eyes, making Luke's heart twinge with pain. 

"Don't be. If you wouldn't have, I would've," Luke reassured with a sad smile. 

"Boys, are you ready to go? It's about to start storming and your father doesn't want to drive in it for too long," Liz asked, her voice soft and somber. 

"Let me go tell my mum and dad we're going," Calum said quietly. 

He left the trio and went over to where his mum and dad were talking to Marin's parents. Michael and Luke stood in the graveyard, looking over at the grave of the young girl that was being filled in with dirt. It made tears sting Luke's eyes as he watched the dirt fill into the hole. Marin was getting buried and closed off from the outside world, no longer able to feel the rain or smell the freshly cut grass. Luke turned to where Joan Hood was standing, crying with her husband as she watched her daughter's plot get filled in. 

"I can't imagine what it would be like burying my own child," Michael said quietly. 

Luke looked towards the boy, seeing that his eyes were fixed on the grave site. He was watching intently, but if one looked close enough, they could see the sympathy and hurt he felt. Luke looked back at the site and then Joan and Marcus. "I don't know what I'd do if that ever happened to me. They literally lost a part of them. Something that they had made out of love and represented the two of them as a couple...it would just be so painful."

The two of them were quiet, watching the man in the Bobcat machine do his duty as they waited for Calum to come back. Neither Michael or Luke had ever lost someone that was close to them. Standing there in that cemetary made both boys realize how terrified they were of losing someone. Seeing the pain that it caused made them even more wary. They didn't want to put themselves through that because they knew that it would never go away. They would never forget the person and every time that they would think of them, the pain would come back. Even if it were brief, they never wanted to feel that. 

It wasn't a selfish thing, it was normal. It was a stage of grief. Nobody wants to see someone they love disappear forever, so they're going to be what people consider to be "selfish" and want that person around. It's morbid that people accuse others of being a selfish asshole for wanting to keep someone around that was in pain. It wasn't that people wanted to see the other in pain, they just wanted to keep them around because they love them more than anything. They weren't ready to lose them forever. 

"My mum and dad said we could leave," Calum said, shaking both Michael and Luke out of their deep thoughts. 

The three walked towards Liz, Andy, Ben, and Jack, who were all conversing with each other close to the SUV. Luke nodded to his mother, telling them that it was alright to go and everyone filed into the vehicle. Michael, Luke, and Calum were squished in the very back seat while Ben and Jack sat in front of them. Luke never knew that the SUV had a third row of seats, so he was pleasantly surprised that they could fit seven people in it. 

For the first half hour of the ride back to the cabin, the mood in the vehicle was tense and sad. Nobody talked really. They didn't know what to say. It wasn't like anyone could suddenly be in a fantastic mood after going to a funeral of a twenty-something year old girl. Luke looked over to Calum, whose head was resting against the rain splattered window as he looked out it. There was a tear running down his cheek every so often, but Luke didn't say anything. He figured that it was best to just leave the boy alone to his own thoughts. Luke was sure that Calum hadn't been left to himself that entire week prior. 

\----

By the time the family got back to the cabin, everyone was chatting with each other, even Calum. Luke figured that it had something to do with the fact that they had stopped and got some Panda Express on the way home, giving them all energy. Maybe it didn't though.

The storm that Liz had been talking about had not yet hit the cabin. It was still as sunny as it had been when they left for Sydney that morning. In fact, being in suits made all of the men feel hot and uncomfortable. Once they were in the house, the trio went back into Luke's bedroom to change into something more comfortable than their stiff and hot black suits. 

As Luke relaxed on his bed in his University of Sydney sweatpants, he smiled at the ceiling. It felt whole in the house again. Both of his best friends were back and he was able to help Calum through the mourning process yet. Though Calum wasn't the type to stay hung up on things, Luke knew that he would still have a rough time with this loss. Marin was like his and Mali's other sister. 

"Why are you smiling at the ceiling? Did you install selfie cams or something?" Michael asked sarcastically.

"What? I'm not. That's just my face," Luke said, trying to play it off as Michael seeing things.

"So, you're saying that when you lay down, you automatically smile?" Calum wondered, a smirk on his still saddened face. 

"As a matter of fact, I do."

The three shared a small chorus of laughters before the others collapsed on the bed next to Luke. It felt nice to be next to his brothers again. He knew that one of them was hurting, but both Luke and Michael could help fix that and make him forget about the pain of death and sorrow. 

"Have you talked to the delinquent next door while we were gone?" Calum asked. 

Luke cringed, remembering the confrontation that they had shared. "He yelled at me and was mad that I wouldn't forgive him. He doesn't really have a right being mad at me since he was the one who brought it on. But at the same time, I do understand where he is coming from."

"Luke! He lied to you and broke your trust. You've never done that, so you can't possibly understand where he's coming from. But you should be the one that should be furious, not him. That's completely stupid that he's mad at you," Michael said bitterly.

Luke agreed with Michael, but he still couldn't help but see where Ashton was coming from. If Luke were in Ashton's shoes, he would want to be forgiven. But Luke wasn't about to just up and give forgiveness to him. He hadn't earned it, therefore he didn't deserve it. And Luke wasn't about to trust him as far as he would be able to throw him. 

"I don't think that you should forgive him. Like ever. He's annoying anyway," Michael scoffed. 

"Somebody doesn't like Ashton, do they?" Calum chuckled. 

"Why should I?! This is the second time that he's hurt Luke in some way and I'm not very happy about that. Not only that, but he also went out of his way to attack us without even getting to know us. If he thinks that he can come in here and demand trust and forgiveness and friendship from any of us, he's delusional. If he should be demanding anything, it should be mercy. I would not hesitate to drop kick him and beat him with a frying pan," Michael spewed, growing angrier and angrier as he continued.

"Woah, woah. Calm yourself. Nobody's drop kicking or beating anyone with frying pans. I'm not going to do anything or talk to him ever again. He's not worth it," Luke told Michael, knowing that Michael was both serious and joking. It was hard to tell what was serious, but he had a feeling that the drop kicking would be serious. "This is why I didn't want neighbors."

\----


	23. Chapter 23

Luke went outside, bored of listening to Michael and Calum snore on the couch. As much as he wanted to take a nap, he was glad he didn't, despite not having a good night's sleep since the funeral a week ago. It wasn't that he was restless; he and the other two stayed up until two or three in the morning doing God knows what. Luke could feel himself getting older...he couldn't stay up past three for some reason. It was like that Fairy Odd Parents episode where Timmy passed out right at nine, except for Luke, it was three in the morning.

It was misting outside, but it was cold so it felt good as it hit Luke's warm face. For once, it was peaceful. Usually, the sounds of boat traffic and yelling from little kids from neighboring cabins would fill the air, but now it was quiet. It was like nobody was there and he was in his own little bubble.

Slowly, he strolled down his backyard, deciding to go to the separation woods that Ashton had taken him to. He felt a small wash of sadness as he pictured sitting there and talking with the boy, even if the majority of it was a lie. It led him to remembering the night before he found out the truth and how the two had been cuddling in Luke's bed. As much as Luke hated him, he missed him. Ashton had seemed like a really good person and Luke liked him. And when Luke found out the truth that he had lied to him, it felt like heartbreak.

"You're not welcomed here."

Luke looked up from his shoes, finding Ashton sitting alone on the log. He had a sad and exhausted expression on his face as he looked out at the lake. And for some reason, hearing those words come out of Ashton's mouth hurt Luke more than it should've. Normally, Luke would've said a smart ass comment and would've left, but this time he stayed and didn't say anything. He just went over to the space on the log and took a seat.

"Are you deaf now or what? Is this to make me feel guilty? I told you that you aren't welcomed here," Ashton spat, trying to sound angry but he just sounded sad instead.

"I'll sit on my property side and you sit on yours. That way neither of us are trespassing," Luke said softly, not wanting to get up and leave.

"The point isn't that you're trespassing; it's that you're in my presence. If I wanted to see an asshole such as you, I would," he scoffed.

The two boys were quiet as Luke thought about his words carefully. He didn't want to say something wrong, but he knew that if he didn't choose his words carefully, he would be sorry for it later. He glanced over at Ashton out the corner of his eye, feeling a bit guilty for being the sole reason that he looked so sad and was so bitter.

"You told me to come find you when I was ready to talk, Ash. That's what I did," he mumbled, not taking his eyes off of the body of water in front of him.

"So, you're telling me that you've finally pulled your head out your ass?" Ashton spat.

"My head was never in my ass, Ashton. I have every right to be angry with you. You broke my trust and lied to me about something that...that extreme. I could've gotten into huge trouble with the police for beating your dad. You could've broken up your family..." Luke trailed, his tone calm and soft. "I understand that you want me to just forgive you and act like it isn't a big deal, but that isn't how I necessarily work, Ashton. I don't forgive people easily when they break trust. All of my relationships with people are based on trust and nothing else."

Ashton was quiet. Luke could see that he wanted to defend himself, but he could also see that he was done with fighting. He wanted him to say something, anything really. But he knew that he wouldn't. It was visible how much Ashton was accepting probably the thousandth lecture he had gotten since that day.

"If you just came here to lecture me, you can leave," he whispered.

Luke felt an instant guilt. "I'm not lecturing you, Ashton..." he trailed.

Ashton looked at him for the first time since he arrived there, his hazel eyes empty and dark. "Then what are you doing?"

The statement caught the blonde boy off guard. He was lecturing Ashton. That wasn't his intentions at all, but he didn't know differently. Luke took a deep breath, deciding that he should start the conversation over and approach it differently. The one problem was that he didn't really know how.

"I'm sorry that I lectured you. I didn't mean to."

Ashton was looking down at his feet now, not saying anything. As Luke looked at him, he realized just how much hell that Ashton had been put through ever since the debacle unfolded. Luke was sure that Anne and John had given him quite the go around and were probably still disappointed and giving him the silent treatment. Harry and Lauren were probably aware of the extreme tension in the household, so they most likely were keeping their distance and not talking to him.

"What do you want from me?" he wondered, his voice almost inaudible.

"I want to talk to you. I think it's time that we put this behind us so the summer isn't tense and crappy," Luke started.

"What are you saying? You want to be friends again? I suppose it's because you're getting sick of Calum and Michael," he scoffed.

"You try to get me to forgive you and then you pull this crap? Ash, how are we supposed to get anywhere if you keep acting like this?! It's just going to turn into a huge fight and we are going to go from somewhat friends to hating each other like we did when we first met. I don't want that and I can't imagine you would, but apparently, you do," Luke snapped, getting fed up with Ashton's refusal to reason with him.

It confused Luke. He didn't understand why Ashton would freak out at him and tell him to talk to him and then turn around and act like he was. Not only was Luke confused, but he was getting fed up. If Ashton was going to put him through hell when he didn't have any right to, he wasn't worth it. Luke wasn't going to put up with it. He didn't have the patience.

"You know, I have a right to be pissed at you. You have made me feel like the shittiest person on earth for the longest time and that isn't righ-"

"Ashton, you had me believing that your parents were monsters and were the worst people on the face of the earth. You expected me to be okay with that? Are you delusional?" Luke asked, appalled at his claims.

"No, Luke, I'm not delusional. I like you and you were giving a shit about me and it made me feel fucking special, so I continued the lie. Yeah, I know now that it was dumb and wrong, but you have to understand why," Ashton spat angrily.

"I don't understand why lying to someone would make you happy because you're going to end up hurting them. I gave you attention, Ashton. What more did you want from me? I told you that my feelings for you weren't the same as yours for me. If that's what you want, you're going to have to go to Grindr or something and a find a lookalike because I'm not g-"

Before Luke could finish his sentence, Ashton's lips were pressing against his, catching him off guard. It was an unexpected turn of events for Luke, but what was even more unexpected was the fact that he was kissing back.

\----


	24. Chapter 24

Neither boy said anything and instead sat staring at each other, both trying to process what had just happened. There wasn't anything that had led up to it and it had just kind of happened out of the blue. Luke thought that Ashton was so angry with him and vice versa, but both of them had kissed each other.

"You kissed me," Luke squeaked.

"You kissed back," Ashton replied.

It was both Ashton and Luke's first kisses and it was not how either wanted it to happen, especially for Luke. He would've rather it have been with a girl because he's straight. But the strange thing about the whole event was the fact that Luke had somewhat enjoyed it. He wasn't supposed to find enjoyment in kissing another male, nor was he supposed to be kissing one back. It was so surreal to Luke that had happened and it was also confusing him.

"Why did you kiss back? I thought you were straight," Ashton wondered, breaking Luke's thoughts.

Luke's blue eyes rose from the ground and met Ashton's wide hazel ones. He intended for his statement to come out normally, but it came out as more of a whisper. "I did too."

While Luke was trying to wrap his head around the idea, Ashton was both mentally scolding himself for doing that but also applauding himself for being that ballsy. He had never been that brave when it came to expressing his emotions towards others, just like that. But the thought in the back of his mind was wondering what was going to happen next. Luke hated him wholly, but if that was true, then why did he kiss back? Not to mention that he was a very good kisser, so it wasn't like he half-assed his way through. If he did, the boy deserved an Oscar.

"What happens now...?" Ashton trailed, wanting to know his fate.

"I don't know. We can't just act like that didn't happen. At least, I know that I can't. That was my first kiss, Ash," Luke told him, obviously frantic.

"It was mine too," Ashton responded quietly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that."

Luke was silent before he looked back at Ashton, placing his smaller hand on Ashton's knee softly. "Don't be. It was...good."

Neither boy could help the small smiles that formed on their faces. It was more of a sense of relief than it was happiness. Luke didn't know what he had gotten himself into, but he also didn't understand why he was getting himself involved with Ashton again - and this time it was on a different level.

"Are you still mad at me?" Ashton wondered. "I don't blame you if you are."

"Strangely, no. I'm not," Luke replied, looking out at the gray scenery in front of them.

"That kiss was the cure all for you?" the wavy haired boy chuckled.

"I guess it was. Just...please don't lie to me again?" Luke requested, looking at his neighbor with a pleading expression.

Ashton nodded, a pang of guilt stabbing through him. "What I did was foolish. I didn't need to lie to you in order to gain your friendship. I'm sorry, Luke."

Luke smiled sweetly. "Apology accepted. I forgive you."

"Just like that?" he wondered, looking at the blonde with a bewildered expression.

"All I wanted was a civil apology and for you to take responsibility without shouting and cursing me out," Luke nodded.

The two exchanged smiles, both of them ready to start their relationship - friendship - over again.

\----

As the three boys sat in laundry room and folded clothes, Luke was thinking about the day's events. He hadn't told anyone about what had happened with Ashton and he wasn't planning to. He didn't know if he was even gay or any of that and he certainly was not ready to come out to anyone. That was a whole different Oprah show that he wasn't ready to get into. It just gave him the chills thinking about it. His whole family, especially his brothers, would think differently of him and treat him so much differently than normal. They weren't unaccepting homophobes, but it was clear to Luke that there would be some level of disappointment if he were to come out and tell them that he was gay.

"Luke, what's on your mind? You're quiet," Calum asked.

"And you've also been trying to fold that shirt for about ten minutes. Did you forget how?" Michael joked.

Luke faked a laugh and it was obvious - just what he was afraid of. "Oh, nothing important. I'm just thinking of life. Having one of those days."

"Ugh, I hate to think of those days. I'm certainly not ready to adult. I don't think I'm adult material," Calum said, seeming to buy his somewhat excuse.

"Who is ready to adult other than adults?" Mikey laughed.

"Okay, let's face the facts here, Mike. You're going to be one of those guys that will spend the majority - maybe even all - of your life playing video games and eating endless amounts of junk food," Luke started. "Oh, and you're living in your parents' basement."

"It's scary how you all can guess my life goals correctly without me having to tell you," the dyed blonde boy said.

"You should get a job as a video game tester. At least you'd get paid for that," Calum suggested.

"That's true. Do I have to go to Uni for that?" Michael wondered.

"You are the most laziest son of a bitch that I know, Michael Clifford," Luke laughed.

They went back to folding the laundry in silence, the only sounds filling the room was the sounds from Calum's Green Day Pandora. Luke went back to thinking about his new found interests, not sure how to feel about it. The worst part was that he knew that the curiosity and confusion was going to consume him until he figured it out or something. The problem was that he didn't know what to do.

When they were finished folding all of the laundry, Luke separated from his best friends, saying that he had to go to the bathroom. As he went upstairs, he went into his room to grab his phone and then went into the bathroom, shutting the door and locking himself inside. He wasn't about to risk being walked in on what he was about to do.

He put the toilet seat down quietly and sat on the cover. When he was perched, Luke went onto his phone, scrolling through his contacts. He tapped "Ishton Arwin", hitting call. Luke needed to talk to him now. He was the only gay person that Luke knew and he would know what to tell him to do and how to handle it.

"I didn't expect you to call so soon," Ashton answered after a whole four rings.

"I need your advice. It's not a big deal, but it I don't know what to do," Luke told him in a hushed tone.

"Okay. But why are you talking so quiet?"

"I'm in the bathroom. I didn't tell anyone about our...reconciliation."

"Makes sense. Meet me at the spot in five."

Luke agreed, hanging up. He crawled off of the toilet and lifted the seat cover up, flushing it to make it sound good. He washed his hands, finding that he was a germ collector by just standing in the bathroom. Quickly, he unlocked the door, walking out like he hadn't been on the phone in case Michael, Calum, or any of his family members were within the vicinity. Thankfully, it seemed that he was the only one upstairs. Rushing back to the bathroom, Luke shut the door to give the sign that it was being occupied. Nobody except Calum and Michael used it anyway and they were in the basement, so there should've been no worries, but Luke wasn't about to risk anything.

The blonde ran down the stairs and out to his and Ashton's spot. By the time Luke had gotten there, Ashton was just walking through the brush on his side of the property line. He gave his neighbor a small smile, thankful that he had agreed to come out so quickly. Both boys took a seat on the log, this time close enough that their thighs were touching.

"So, what's up?" Ashton wondered when they were both settled.

"Well, ever since our rendezvous, I've been thinking about it and I've been confused and Michael and Calum are starting to notice. I don't know what to think," Luke rambled. "You're the only person who knows what this feels like and that I want to talk to about it."

"About kissing me? Just because you kissed me doesn't make you gay, Luke. It doesn't work like that," Ashton scoffed.

"What? But I -"

"Save it, Luke. I don't want you to come up with an excuse to make me feel less guilty or something. I did what I did because I had an over abundance of confidence. It won't happen again, so you don't need to let me down easy. I know how this turns out."

\----


	25. Chapter 25

Luke was shocked that Ashton got cold with him so fast. "I'm not coming up with an excuse, Ashton. I'm being serious. I've never felt this way about a guy before."

"Yeah, because you've always felt that about girls," Ashton sassed. 

"No...I've never felt that either."

Ashton looked at Luke, who was looking down at the ground in shame. Luke had never really felt he had a crush on a girl or when he looked at the attractive ones, he never felt attracted to them. He thought that they were pretty, but that's the extent it went. But Luke never thought that he was gay or something other than straight. Though now that he thought about it and had been enlightened with the kiss from Ashton, the idea wasn't impossible. All Luke wanted was help trying to sort out what was happening, but he couldn't even get that without getting bitched at. 

"Are you serious, Luke?" Ashton wondered, his voice quiet and gentle. 

Luke just nodded, feeling vulnerable and shamed. He didn't like exposing himself to people because he felt like he was being judged and that others would look at him differently. It made him feel icky and disgusting. When he worked up the courage, Luke lifted his head, looking at the boy with the most apologetic look on his face. 

"I'm sorry...I didn't know that you were serious. I thought you were just...I thought you were going to tell me in some roundabout way that you didn't have those feelings about me. I didn't mean to...offend you," Ashton apologized. 

"I'm not offended. I just wanted help figuring out what I am. I don't know want to be confused," Luke told him solemnly. 

"I guess I can try to help you. If you want. I've never really helped anyone before, so I don't know if you'll figure anything out," Ashton offered quietly. 

"Okay."

The two sat there for a minute, neither sure what to do. It wasn't like they questioned people about their sexuality on the daily. It was definitely going to take some time for Luke to figure it out completely. 

"Um, do you get attracted to guys? Like do you find them to be sexy?" Ashton asked awkwardly. 

"I...yeah. I'm, um, attracted to you," Luke trailed, scratching the back of his neck.

If Luke would've been watching him, he would've seen that Ashton was completely taken aback and lost for words. Ashton didn't know what to say. Nobody had ever told him that they were attracted to him and now not only was Luke's head in a frenzy, but Ashton's was as well. Ashton shifted uncomfortably in his seat, thinking that it was best not to act appalled by it and just continue trying to help Luke become less confused. 

"Did you feel anything when we kissed?" he grilled.

"I felt this...weird feeling in my stomach. Like the nervous feeling, but I wasn't nervous? You know what I am talking about right?" Luke tried explaining. He looked at Ashton and the boy could see that he was tensed. Ashton would be too if he were in Luke's position.

"Like butterflies? Have you ever kissed a girl...?" Ashton wondered. 

"No...you were my first kiss," Luke admitted shyly. "But I've never had any desires to kiss girls. It never really appealed to me when presented with the idea."

Luke hated what he was admitting to someone that he had never wanted to talk to just mere hours ago, but he knew that Ashton wasn't going to hold it against him. He just kept reminding himself that it was better to get it off his chest than to continue to bottle it all up inside and eventually go insane. 

"Luke...do you want to do anymore than talk to me?" Ashton asked.

The blonde looked up at him, his blue eyes wide. He didn't think that Ashton was really asking him that and he couldn't believe what came to his mind the moment his neighbor had said it. There wasn't any doubt in his mind that he was, in fact, gay. He nearly cringed at the words as they went through his mind because it was all so foreign and strange. 

"Y-yeah..." Luke stammered. He felt ashamed. He felt like a disgrace to his family and friends.

"Luke, are you sure? Are you one hundred percent positive?" 

Luke nodded, the tears that had been stabbing the back of his eyes now making their way down his cheeks. He couldn't look at Ashton anymore and just let his head fall into his hands as he sobbed. It startled him when he felt an arm drape across his back and his body being pulled into an awkward comfort hug from Ashton. 

"It's okay, Luke. I know exactly what the hell it is you're going through," Ashton comforted, feeling bad that Luke resorted to crying but was happy that he had figured himself out. 

\----

When Luke went into the house about twenty minutes after he had broke down. He was going to make it a point to spend the rest of the day alone, despite having his two best friends there. They must have still been downstairs because there wasn't a soul upstairs. In a way, Luke felt bad that he was just ditching them, but he just wanted to sleep and forget the new information about himself. 

Once he was in his room, he shut the door and crawled into his bed so he was in a blanket burrito. The only problem was that he wasn't tired and knew that he wasn't going to be able to sleep for a while and he would just be caught in his thoughts for even longer. 

Now that he knew for a fact that he was gay - and was attracted to Ashton Irwin of all people - he couldn't imagine coming out. To anyone. He could barely come out to himself, let alone people that he loved and cared about the most. He couldn't look in the mirror and say "I'm gay" without cringing and hating himself more than anything in the world - and he wasn't even looking in the mirror. 

Why did he even urge his parents to get the cabin? Why did he decide to go over to Ashton's when they first moved? If none of that would have happened, then he wouldn't be in the predicament he was in. He wouldn't be wishing for sudden death to fall upon him. 

When he moved his head to become more comfortable on his pillow, he realized that his pillow was wet and that he was silently crying. He never once would have thought that he would 1) be gay and crushing on his neighbor that also happened to like him back and 2) become depressed or want to die. He wasn't to the point where he was going to commit suicide - at least, not yet. 

"Luke, are you okay?" 

Luke pulled himself out of his thoughts and discreetly wiped his eyes with the back of his hands. He slowly rolled onto his back and saw Calum and Michael entering the bedroom. He didn't know what to tell them. 

"I'm fine. Just not feeling the best," Luke told him. He wasn't lying. He felt like shit, but it wasn't the illness type. 

"Do you want us to tell Liz?" Michael asked. 

"No, I think I just need to sleep it off," he told them. If only sleeping it off were that easy. 

"Okay. We're going to play FIFA for a bit with Ben and Jack, so if you want to join us," Calum offered. 

"Thanks, guys," Luke said with a half smile. 

As they left the room, Luke couldn't help but wonder what the two would think of him being gay. He wasn't sure if they would be down for it. Neither of them seemed to be the type to hate gay people, so there was the hope for that. But would they want to be best friends with a gay person? There was no doubt that they would think so much differently of him and he didn't want that. He didn't want them to think of him as any different because he didn't want to be different. He wanted to be the Luke Hemmings that they knew and loved as a brother already. Not gay Luke Hemmings.

There was also the undeniable fact that they wouldn't approve of his choice of Ashton Irwin as his first kiss and first actual crush. There was no fighting that fact. They wouldn't approve and then they wouldn't want to hangout with him. That would surely ruin their bond if the whole homosexuality thing in general didn't. Luke didn't want to lose his best friends over something that was uncontrollable or a guy. 

His phone pinged just then, interrupting the negativity that was floating throughout his mind. He grabbed it out of his pocket and checked the lock screen. It was Ashton.

From: Ishton Arwin

Are you okay???

To: Ishton Arwin

Yep. Dandy.

Luke knew that Ashton would catch on to it being a sarcastic comment since he felt anything but alright. He wasn't at all happy with himself and he wasn't at all fine with who he now was. If anything, he would have rather been locked in a cage with rabid lions.

\----


	26. Chapter 26

It had been an entire week and a half and Luke was still feeling like he was a piece of shit. It was almost as if he went into some type of depression or something. He was of the thinking that he was being discreet about it and nobody noticed that he was acting weird, but little did he know that it was obvious, at least to Jack and his best friends, just none of them called him out on it. 

During the time that Luke had been distant, he also hadn't had any communication with Ashton, mainly because he didn't want to talk to him. Maybe if he ignored his neighbor, there would be a chance that he would quit feeling the way he did. Get out of the phase that he was going through. Despite everything, Luke was still of the belief that his sexuality was just a phase. 

"Luke, are you there?" Jack asked, flicking his nose. 

"Yeah," Luke responded with a half-hearted snicker. 

"Then why are you acting like I have to leave a message after the beep every time I talk to you?" he joked.

"I'm tired," the blonde shrugged. 

"You've been sleeping for the past week and also the car," he pointed out after the car went over a bump.

Jack had gathered the three boys up and they were going to be spending the day shopping around the town that the cabin was located by. The only reason that any of them decided to go was because there was a video game store and Jack was planning on getting his first tattoo, which the three wanted to watch as he cried in pain. Other than that, Luke would've rather spent yet another day asleep in bed. 

"It doesn't mean that I've slept well. I've actually been rather restless," Luke told him, hoping that the guy would just buy his excuse. If Jack was anything like their father, he would be oblivious to Luke's obvious feelings. It was a gift and curse that their father possessed.

The front seat was quiet as the ride went along, Michael and Calum's consistent bantering the only noise filling the vehicle. It wasn't like Luke and Jack not to banter and act like brothers, especially since Luke was the one who usually initiated it. Accepting sexuality changed Luke. 

As Jack began to drive into the strip mall lot, Luke felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. It gave him somewhat of a scare since nobody had texted him in a few days. He discreetly took the device out of his pocket, expecting it to be Liz, but was somewhat surprised to see that it was Ashton. A frown made itself known on Luke's face. It wasn't like he didn't want to talk to Ashton, but he knew that it would just make him more confused if he did. He wanted to avoid the confused feeling. It was starting to become maladaptive. 

From: Ishton Arwin

are you sure you're okay? you haven't talked to me in days & I'm getting worried.

It was nice of Ashton to show his concern for Luke, which he appreciated greatly. But as far as Luke could see, he couldn't tell the wavy haired boy the truth about what he was feeling. He couldn't open himself up like that and make himself vulnerable - both to Ashton and to falling more for Ashton. He couldn't let this "phase" take over him because he knew that he shouldn't be the way he was now finding out about. 

He wanted to be the normal, girl-loving son that his family and friends thought he was. He didn't want them to view him as a gay and confused boy that had fallen for the boy that had betrayed his trust in an unforgivable way. He knew the judgment that would amount from it and he was not ready to face that. Nobody would be. Personally, Luke gave outed LGBT+ people so much credit; he didn't understand how they dealt with all of the judgment and hate that they received. Luke couldn't even handle the thought, let alone handle the reality. 

There was a knock on Luke's window, knocking him from his deep thought process. When he processed what was going on, he noticed that Jack, Michael, and Calum were standing outside, staring in at him like he was a caged animal. He felt embarrassed as he opened the door, getting out of the vehicle. Though nobody questioned him as they walked towards the mall. It wasn't what he expected, but he wasn't going to complain about it. The last thing he wanted was to be confronted. 

The first place they went in was the video game store that Luke showed very little interest in, which was noticeable to Michael. While Luke was off on his own looking at the various versions of Sim games, Michael walked over to him, determined to find out what was bothering his best friend. Luke didn't even notice him until his shoulder was tugged and he was turned around. 

"What the hell is going on with you, Luke? You're not acting like you," Michael confronted, automatically putting Luke on the defense.

"Nothing's wrong. As I told Jack, I'm tired. That's about it," he told him. 

"Bullshit. I've been your best friend for years, Luke. Hell, we're basically brothers. I know when there's something wrong," he pressed. "You don't have to tell me the nitty gritty details, but just let me in a little bit. I'm starting to worry about you because you're going distant again. I thought we were all past that point."

"I'm not going distant, Mikey. I'm fine. Why can't you believe me?" Luke wondered. The thought of telling him kept repeating in his mind, but he knew that it wouldn't amount to anything but an overly dramatic event and he wasn't really up to dealing with that, especially when he was in the middle of video game store that he was sure that he would make a visit to in the future. 

"I get if you don't tell me now since we're out in public, but I just want you to talk to me. Bottling it up is not good for anyone, Luke. You're going to need to let it out," Michael told him with a softer and more calming voice. 

Everything in Luke's mind was telling him that he needed to tell Michael about what was actually going through his mind. He needed to let out that he was facing the fact that he was either in a phase of being gay or that he was actually gay. That was the only way that anything was going to get resolved and the only way that Luke was going to be able to not be so depressed and he knew that it would help him.

\-----


	27. Chapter 27

Four days. It had been that long since Luke had talked to anyone. But now, he thought that it was a fine time to go to Ashton to discuss some things. He had thought about a lot in the past four isolating days. He came to the conclusion that it was going to be best if he didn't continue to bottle up what was going on inside of him. It needed to be released and there was no doubt about that. But in order for him to be effective and give himself some time to mentally prepare between chats, he was going to have one conversation per day. Today was going to be Ashton since his was going to be the easiest yet one of the most difficult talks he was going to have.

The blonde gently washed his stubbly face with the wet cloth, getting the four day old grime off of himself. As Luke looked into the mirror, he nearly jumped because it was hard to recognize himself with the stubble. There was never a time that Luke went without shaving. Everyday he would make it a point to make sure that his face was clean of hair and looked smooth. It didn't look terrible on him, but it certainly was different and aged him about five years, making him look twenty something instead of seventeen. He wasn't a huge fan of that part. Deciding it was time to make his face young again, Luke opened his cabinet to grab his razor. 

It obviously took longer than normal to make his face smooth, but he was happy when he looked at himself in the mirror again. He wasn't aged and looked normal. When he felt that he was old enough, he would grow out his stubble. But seventeen was just too young for that to happen. He wanted to look grown up when he was ready to actually start growing up and adulting. 

Luke combed his messy and disheveled hair, keeping it down for a change. There wasn't really a point for him to style it because he wasn't really in the mood to. Plus the day was half over and he would only have to shower or brush it out in a few hours when he went to bed. Which led him to just grabbing his white t-shirt, go-to hoodie, and his pair of blue flannel pajama pants. It was definitely nothing fancy for Ashton, but it didn't need to be. Ashton wasn't a black tie kind of guy. 

After he felt he was ready to go, Luke grabbed his phone and sent Ashton a text to tell him to meet him at their spot. It was definitely going to be awkward, but he was hoping that his neighbor would hear him out. He had with the conversations they've had up to this point, but there was still a slight fear that Luke had. 

It was easy for Luke to quietly escape his house since everyone else was preoccupied with whatever they were doing. It was only his brothers and friends that he had to sneak past in the living room. His dad was out in the shed and his mum was in the garden. They wouldn't notice him because they were of the thinking that he was locked away in his room like he had been. He quietly closed the door and bounded down the stairs so he was on the ground. Carefully, Luke made it through the back yard along the property line, not taking his eyes off his parents to make sure they didn't turn around and spot him. 

When he got to his and Ashton's spot, it was lonely. Luke expected that Ashton was probably just trying to get away from his family. He took his normal spot on the log that was on his side of the property and looked out at the lake, noticing that the water was coming farther onto shore than it was last time. It wasn't much, but it was over halfway to where Luke was seated. 

He heard rustling around in the bushes, so the blonde turned to see Ashton fighting his way through the mess of brush until he was at his seat on the log. The neighbor boy gave Luke a smile when he was comfortable, almost as if he hadn't seen him in years. 

"Long time no see," Ashton finally said. "You haven't been outside much."

"No, I haven't. I also haven't been socializing very much either," Luke shrugged with a half smile. He was surprised at his own voice. It sounded so much different than the one in his head. 

"Really? Why not? Are you still confused about the whole gay thing?" Ashton wondered, a look of concern in his pretty hazel eyes. Luke almost forgot what he had come here to do just by looking into them. 

"I've just had a lot on my mind. I figured that enough is enough and I need to start to have conversations and come to terms with a few things. I need to take it day by day and hope for the best," Luke told him, satisfied with his plan. 

"I'm guessing that I'm one of those conversations?" Ashton wondered, his eyebrow quirking up.

"Damn, you must be psychic," Luke chuckled. "Yeah, you are. You're the first one I'm having because you're going to be the easiest...still hard, but easier than everyone else. I think. We'll find out."

Ashton just smiled. "Alright. So what is it you want to talk to me about?"

Luke swallowed, ready to start the conversation, but couldn't get the words from his throat. He looked at Ashton, who was waiting, but didn't say anything. It was as if he had forgotten everything that he was going to say. 

"Luke?" Ashton wondered. 

"I-yeah, I'm going. I just...I don't know how to put it into words," he stammered. "It's harder than I originally thought."

"What does it have to do with...?" he questioned, suddenly looking more nervous than anything.

"Um, well, it has to do with you...and myself," Luke forced out. 

"Okay. What do you mean? Our friendship?" he asked.

"No. It's actually...I want to be more than friends with you, Ashton. I know what you're going to say and yes, I've spent the past four days thinking about it, all day and all night and I am willing to give it a go. The truth is...I actually really do like you," Luke rambled.

Ashton just looked at him, lost for words. Luke felt his heart begin to sink, awaiting the rejection that he expected, but still wasn't ready for. He knew that Ashton had said that he had a crush on him, but at the same time, Luke felt that he was going to shoot him down.

"Are you sure, Luke?" Ashton asked slowly.

"If I wasn't sure, I wouldn't be telling you this," Luke deadpanned.

"You just figured out that you were gay and I'm the only one you can talk to about it. Plus, I'm the only one that you seem to know that is gay. I feel like you're only feeling this way because you don't know anyone else and aren't aware of anyone in your school that is in the closet or out of the closet," Ashton explained. 

Luke looked at him with sad eyes. "Are you saying that you don't feel the same way about me anymore?"

The wavy haired boy shook his head. "No, Luke. I'm not saying that at all. I feel the same way about you, if not more. I'm just making sure that you're sure of your feelings and aren't making a rash decision just because you feel that you need a boyfriend or feel that I'm the only attractive gay guy out there. Which, by the way, I am not. There are plenty of gay men that are far more attractive than me. Have you seen Connor Franta or Harry Styles? Beautiful people and they're both gay."

Luke was quiet, processing what Ashton was explaining to him. He knew that Ashton had a point and he appreciated that he was looking out for Luke, but he was sure that he had feelings for Ashton. The blonde had spent four days - if not more - thinking about it. There was nothing that Luke was more sure of in his life. 

"I understand what you're saying, Ash, but I'm sure about my feelings. I've been pondering over it for days. I couldn't be more sure of it," Luke told him, hoping that he would understand.

Ashton was quiet and didn't answer Luke for a spell. It felt like hours to Luke, but it was only mere minutes before his neighbor spoke up. 

"It's not a good idea, Luke. Not right now."

\----


	28. Chapter 28

To say that Luke was hurt was the biggest understatement of the millennium. He thought that Ashton would jump at the chance to be his boyfriend finally, but much to Luke's surprise, Ashton rejected him. Luke really felt something for Ashton and it wasn't any type of friendship...it was on a relationship level. Ashton explained to him that it wouldn't be a good idea to jump into a relationship until he talked to the rest of his loved ones. He said that Luke would know for sure if he still desired to be in a relationship once everything was out. 

He sat on his bed, listening to the snores of Calum and Michael as they slept through their sugar comas. There was a time that Luke would've been in the same boat as them, but that was back when he wasn't insecure and questioning his sexuality. Now he could only dream that he would've eaten the shit ton of junk food, only to pass out. He would give anything to have a good night's rest again. 

Despite the disappointment of the prior day's event, Luke was going to stick to his plan of talking to everyone about what was going on with him. Instead of going from easiest to hardest, it seemed that he was going from hardest to easiest. He had to face his parents and tell them that he wasn't the normal son that they thought they had. It was time to break the news that he was a gay disappointment that no parent ever wants. 

Taking a deep breath, Luke got up from the bed and made his way out to the living room to where his mum and dad were sitting on the couch watching a movie. He didn't know where his brothers were, but in a way, he was happy neither Ben or Jack were there. It would've been easier to tell just his parents instead of everyone in the family, but he knew that his parents would tell his brothers and he would rather them hear it from he himself than anyone else. 

Luke stood in a spot where he was noticeable for his parents, but wasn't going to make the first move. He was dreading what was about to go down, so he was going to let either Liz or Andy say something first. He focused on the screen, figuring that the comedy movie that was playing would relieve some of the tension for a few minutes, but he thought wrong. 

"Hey, honey," Liz said with a smile, shifting Luke's attention away from the telly. "What's up?"

"Not much," he responded, taking a gulp. "I need to talk to you guys. Do you know where Ben and Jack are?" 

"As far as I know they're either outside or in their rooms. What's wrong? Where's Calum and Michael?" she asked, her tone growing more and more panicked as she spoke. 

"It's not an emergency or anything, so don't panic. Calum and Michael are passed out from a food coma on my floor," Luke told her. 

"Oh, okay. I guess you can get your brothers. Where do you want to talk?" she wondered, her worry wrinkle forming in the middle of her forehead. 

"Right here. I'll be right back."

Luke ran down the stairs, just wanting to get the conversation over with, hoping that he wouldn't have to face as much hate and ridicule as he was expecting. He was hoping that his family would still love him and accept him. It would break his heart if his mum went from loving to bitter hatred within an instant. 

When he got to Ben and Jack's door, he pounded on the door quickly. There was a groan - he was assuming it was Jack - and the door opened. It was an unshaven and hungover looking Jack. If looks could kill, then Luke would be dead. 

"What do you want, twat?" Jack grumbled.

"Are you in the middle of something?" Luke asked. 

"Recovering. What do you want?" he asked with irritation. 

"Where's Ben?" Luke asked, trying to avoid the answer as much as he could. 

"He's in here on his laptop. Answer me, you little twat. What do you want?" Jack asked, his tone aggravated. 

"I need to talk to you guys and mum and dad, which requires you to come upstairs. It's rather important, so it isn't optional," Luke told him, avoiding eye contact. 

Jack looked irritated, but nodded before he stuck his head behind the door. "Ben, the twat said that there's a family meeting upstairs and it isn't optional."

There was an annoyed moan from Ben before Luke heard him loudly close his laptop and the chair squeak as he got up. Before long, Luke was leading his two older brothers up the stairs. With every step, he felt himself get more and more anxious.

"So, do you know what this family meeting is all about?" Ben asked.

"We aren't in trouble, are we?" Jack asked. 

"Really, you idiot? We're adults now. Mum and dad can't punish us," Ben snapped.

"Yeah, I know. It's...you'll find out. It doesn't directly involve you. You're not in trouble," Luke stammered. 

When they got to the living room, Liz was looking at Luke with a worried expression. The three boys went around and each took a seat on the various furniture. As his brothers took their spots next to Andy, Luke tiptoed towards his room to make sure that his best friends were still out for the count. The two were lying on top of each other, snores filling the room. It made Luke feel better that they were still in their comatose state. He was going to talk to them tomorrow. He wasn't ready to face them along with his family. 

When he went back out into the living room, the telly was turned off and it was so quiet, one could hear a fly fart. He awkwardly went over to the isolated recliner that faced both of the couches that faced his family members were sitting on. He had never felt the feeling he had now. If anything, he always felt like he fit into his family quite well, but now...he felt like he didn't belong. Luke felt as if he were an outsider looking in on a perfect, happy family. He was now the black sheep of the Hemmings tribe. He didn't like it.

"Honey, what's wrong?" Liz finally asked her son, sounding and looking worried. 

"I...um, I..." Luke gulped. The four pairs of eyes that were on him were making his heart race faster and he started to sweat, getting really hot. 

"Well, spit it out. We didn't come up here to hear you stammer," Jack demanded. 

"Jack! Be respectful," Andy scolded. "Luke, what is it?"

"I'm, um. I..." he tried. He knew what he was going to say, but he just couldn't get himself to say it. In truth, the blonde felt as though he was feeling choked, the tension in his throat getting tighter and tighter. He was sweating more profusely than he ever had before and he was starting to hyperventilate. 

"Luke, are you okay? What's going on? You look like you're choking, honey," Liz pointed out, growing panicked. She got up from her spot and rushed to her hyperventilating son. "Andy, call the ambulance."

Andy got up from the couch and rushed over to his wife and son, his phone in his hand as he called the ambulance. Luke felt as if he were dying from suffocation. He felt like he had to throw up, but knew that he couldn't without choking to death. He didn't know what was happening - his profuse sweating, the hyperventilation, the choking feeling, the nausea. 

It didn't take more than ten minutes for the ambulance to come to the cabin, rushing into the house, loading him onto a stretcher. The short ride to the hospital felt like the longest to Luke. He was terrified of what was happening to his body. The paramedics were careful with him and telling him that it was going to be okay, but he felt anything but. The only thing that they wouldn't tell him is what was wrong. It made Luke even more scared that he was dying. 

The emergency room doctor was in the first room within an instant, accompanied by five nurses. As Luke continued to have his mysterious attack, the doctor kept telling him to count his breaths and a nurse was holding his trembling hand, tracing circles on top of it. He tried to tell them that he wasn't giving birth, but he couldn't get it out. 

He started to focus on the doctor's voice and he felt himself gradually start to gain control over his body again. It took about fifteen minutes for his breathing to become steady and not feel like he was choking. Luke relaxed his tense body on the uncomfortable hospital bed, feeling confused and still terrified over what had happened.

"Luke, what were you doing when this happened?" the doctor asked.

"I was going to talk to my family about something," Luke told him, his voice coming out slightly hoarse. "Nothing physical. I was sitting in a chair and I started sweating really bad and my heart started racing. Oh, and I felt like I was being choked and started hyperventilating."

"Has this ever happened before?" he wondered, getting a shake of the head from Luke in response. "What were you going to talk to your family about? You don't have to be specific, but was it something that was meaningless or was it something that caused you a sort of anxious arousal? In other words, do you get butterflies when you think about it?" 

Luke took a minute, debating whether or not would be a good time to tell them about his gayness. He quickly decided it was an inappropriate time. "I got nervous about it, yeah. Kind of terrified."

He could see his parents look at him in curiosity and confusion while the doctor took a moment to think. It was the wrong thing to say, but he didn't really have much of a choice. "Well, Luke, it seems to me that you had a panic attack. I can't diagnose you with a panic disorder or anxiety disorder, and I can't give you a full-on prescription of antidepressants for it, but I can give you a nonrefillable thirty day's worth dose of benzodiazepines that will subside any symptoms if this happens again. Would you like that?" 

"Yes, doctor," Liz answered for Luke. 

"I'll be right back then," the doctor smiled, leaving the room. 

His parents turned to him with a concerned look on his face. "What do you have to tell us, Luke? Don't panic."

"Do you really think you should be asking him that, Liz? It could send him into another attack," Andy asked.

"He's in the right place if it were to happen again," she shrugged and then looked back to her son.

"I'm...I'm gay."

\----


	29. Chapter 29

Luke's parents looked at him in awe, as if they didn't believe him. As soon as he said the words, he instantly regretted it. He knew that he should've waited until they were back at the cabin. That way, they couldn't just leave him. Well, technically, they could, but it wouldn't be in a place that was unfamiliar to him. 

"What?" Liz asked finally, breaking the awkward tension that now filled the room. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah..." Luke trailed, bracing for the hate that he was about to receive. 

"How do you know?" Andy wondered. 

"Are you with someone?" Liz asked. 

"I know because someone made me realize it, but I'm not with anyone," the blonde told them.

"Who?" Andy asked. "You didn't...you know...did you?"

"No, dad! I didn't do anything with him. He just told me some things and I realized how I felt and, well, I'm gay," he explained. They gave him a look, encouraging him to spill who it was that he was talking about. "It...it's Ashton. Don't be mad, please. It's not his fault."

"Ashton? You're talking to Ashton again?" Liz asked with a confused look. "Why?" 

"He had told me that he was gay a while ago and that he had a crush on me. I didn't think much about it at the time because I didn't like him like that. The night before the truth came out, he came in after I went inside from the bonfire and we had cuddled and fell asleep together...that made me think a little differently about it. Anyways, I've spent the past however many days thinking it over and I've come to accept myself. I hope you can accept me too," Luke finished. He decided to leave the kissing part out. He didn't want to make them even more disgusted in him.

His parents were quiet, processing what their son had just laid on them. He just watched their blank faces as they thought, hoping to see a sign of something, even if it were hate. 

"This...this is quite shocking, actually," Liz told him. 

"Not really," Andy spoke up with a shrug. Both Liz and Luke looked at him, shocked. "He never really took an interest in girls like Ben and Jack did. At this age, those two were doing everything to impress the ladies. Luke hasn't really. It didn't surprise me."

Liz turned back to her son, shocked that Andy had even considered Luke being gay before. "Anyway, you're my baby boy. I'm not going to hate you because you happen to prefer men over women. We can actually go cute boy spotting instead of girl spotting like your brothers made me do. So, it's a win-win."

"I'm glad that I opened new opportunities for you," Luke said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, baby. You know I'm kidding," Liz said, sitting down on the bed as she wrapped her arms around Luke in a hug. 

"Can you not tell Michael or Calum? I want to tell them," Luke requested.

"I think we can keep a secret. What about your brothers?" Liz wondered. 

"Let's just take them cute boy spotting," Luke joked. 

"I feel that's the perfect way to let them know that," Liz laughed. 

The doctor came in a few minutes later, the prescription paper in his hands. The Hemmings' looked back at the doctor, who looked at each of them awkwardly. "I hope I'm not interrupting something."

"No, you didn't interrupt a thing," Liz told him, holding her son's hands. 

"Good," he replied. He looked to Luke. "How are you feeling now, Luke?" 

"Tired, but I'm okay," Luke told him with a small smile. 

If anything, he was feeling better. The weight that was on his shoulders that was gradually getting lighter and lighter as he had these important conversations. He was looking forward to the day when that weight would be completely off of him and he could go through life without feeling so depressed and drug down like he had felt for the past however long. Luke didn't like being sad; he wanted to be happy again. 

"That's great to hear. I have the prescription for the benzodiazepines. You can fill it whenever you'd like, but just remember that it's not refillable being that you aren't diagnosed with a panic disorder. Only take them when you feel a panic attack coming on or during a panic attack. It will help calm you down and make the attack end or never even start," he told him. "Understood?"

"Yes, sir," Luke answered with a nod. 

"Good," the doctor told him, sticking out his hand. "It was nice to meet you, Luke. I hope you don't have to experience anymore of those attacks."

Luke grabbed his hand firmly, giving it a solid shake. "You as well. Thank you for the help."

\----

"You could've died," Michael blurted out as he shoved a handful of crisps into his mouth. 

"Yeah, but I was in the right place, so they could've, like, I don't know, saved my life?" Luke answered.

He had been much happier than he had been for a while and his friends were noticing. They didn't say anything, but they definitely were taking advantage of it. The only thing he had left to do before the majority of the weight on his shoulders was talk to them and tell them what was happening. He wanted to do it then and there being everyone was in a content and good mood, but he knew that it probably wouldn't be a good idea. He'd rather enjoy the night instead of ruining it by telling them this news and have them not accept it. 

Liz had almost let it slip a few times and it had only been approximately three hours since she had found out. Luke always knew that mum was bad at keeping secrets. That's where he learned it from anyway. 

"Why did you even have an attack anyway? Were your parental units yelling at you or something?" Calum wondered. 

"No...I had to tell them something and I just freaked out. It was weird," Luke told them, hoping that they wouldn't press anymore on it, but it was Michael and Calum.

"What was it?" Michael asked. 

Luke gulped, not sure if he could make up a good enough excuse on the spot. He didn't want to tell them the truth, but he almost felt that it was wrong to hide it from them for another day. "I don't even remember to be honest. Must not have been too important."

Thankfully, the two boys didn't say anymore on the issue. Instead, they let it be put to rest and continued on with the evening. It bothered Luke that they weren't forcing him to spill the beans, but at the same time, he was glad that they didn't. The two didn't care if people were gay, but he didn't know if they would accept their best friend being that way.

"Hemmo, what's on your mind? Are you having an attack? Do you need your pills?" Michael panicked. He was the one that was going to need the pills before Luke was. 

"I'm fine, Michael. I was just thinking," Luke responded with a small chuckle. 

"Oh," he responded. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Luke stayed quiet. He did want to talk about it, but he didn't want to bring it up this way. It was going to have to get done either way. Why not just get it over with?

"Well, that thing that I panicked about telling my family this afternoon was about, um, my sexuality," Luke started, quickly gaining both Calum and Michael's full attention. "I have done a lot of thinking, been feeling a lot of things, these past few days and I've come to the realization that I am, in fact, gay."

The two were quiet, just staring at Luke as if he grew another limb. Like his parents, Luke wasn't able to read either of their faces. Once again, he was going to have to pray for a miracle to happen. 

"Huh?" was all Calum said. 

"I'm gay..." Luke trailed. 

"How do you know? Are you sure?" Michael questioned. 

"I'm pretty positive. Nothing has changed about me other than the fact that I like boys instead of girls. I really don't want you guys to hate me for this..." Luke told them.

"Hate you? Just for liking dick up your ass?" Michael snorted. "I don't know about Calum, but I do know that I could never hate you."

"I couldn't either...I'm just surprised," Calum admitted. "I don't think differently of you, I just didn't see it coming."

"Yeah, same. Don't fret it though, Lukey. We will always love you. We can just make you the butt of the dick jokes," Michael said, starting to laugh hysterically. "Do you get it?!" 

"You need help, young padawan," Calum responded. 

Luke smiled, happy that his friends accepted him and the weight that was on his shoulders slid off like an avalanche. He didn't expect anyone to accept him other than Ashton. He thought that he would be trapped in a house full of haters, but that thankfully wasn't the case. 

\----


	30. Chapter 30

"Your brothers are going to be so confused," Liz giggled as she whispered into her son's ear. 

"You guys walk so slow," Jack whined ahead of them.

The four of them were at Big W to pick up some more food and apparently, cute boy spotting. Luke didn't mind if he told Ben and Jack, but he wasn't sure that checking out guys with his mother was exactly how he wanted to do it. Plus, it would be weird. Liz tried to do the same thing with him and had a cute girl spotting day, but it was just awkward because she chose girls that weren't Luke's type. As he thought about it, maybe it was just awkward because girls weren't his type. 

"Jack, don't be such a whiner," Luke scoffed. 

As soon as they walked through the doors, there was a teenager that didn't appear to be much older than Luke putting away carts. Of course, Liz saw him and elbowed her youngest son in the ribs, causing the blonde to let out a small yelp from the rough nudge. 

"He's cute, isn't he?" Liz said, louder than Luke would've preferred because the cute employee heard her. 

"Mum, calm down," Luke said through gritted teeth.

"Sorry for our mum, man. She doesn't get much from our dad, so..." Jack blurted out, sending Liz a smirk. 

"Jack Andrew Hemmings!" Liz scolded in embarrassment. She quickly turned to the employee. "Excuse him." 

She pushed the family into the store quickly to get away from the embarrassment. Jack and Ben were walking in front of the two while Liz was trying to catch up to them. She was more than determined to make Luke's coming out to his brother's memorable. No matter how much Luke tried to tell her that he would remember coming out to everyone, she continued to deny it. It was annoying, but there was no stopping that woman when she was determined. 

"Oh, would you look at him! He's got a nice booty, doesn't he, Luke?" Liz asked her youngest once the four of them were close enough for Jack and Ben to hear her attempts at "boy hunting".

"I don't look at the butts really. I enjoy to see the face of the owner first," Luke shrugged. 

Jack looked at Ben with a confused glance, but didn't say anything as they continued through the store. They carried on just as they normally would by picking out random food and shoving it into the cart despite their mother's protests. It was how all of their shopping trips went. 

Liz had tried about three times to get Jack and Ben to notice that something was different. Considering his brothers were about as clueless as an oblivious squirrel, it would take a lot of attempts or just a blunt comment to make their gaydar go off. Luke didn't mean to be rude about his brothers, but they were two of the most clueless human beings that Luke had ever had the displeasure of knowing. 

"Luke, he's cute," Liz tried again. Luke looked to where she was referring to, expecting to see something that wasn't worth seeing, but his jaw nearly dropped to the ground when he looked at the guy. "Go ask him what he's doing later. Maybe I've scored you a date."

"Wait, why is mum trying to score you a date with a boy?" Ben wondered, the most confused expression written across his face. 

Liz nudged her youngest son, giving him a sideways smirk. Luke looked at his older brother with a closed smile and shrugged as he turned to go talk to the attractive boy that his mother had pointed out to him. Now that he knew that at least one of his brothers were in tune to the idea that he was gay, he felt a little bit better. Granted, he hadn't told them the full truth or clarified anything, but he was starting to feel the rest of the large weight beginning to roll off his shoulder blades. 

He got closer to the attractive lad and realized what he was doing. It wasn't like he was going to actually ask him out on a date. Luke was too whipped over Ashton to do that. It would feel like he was cheating on his neighbor, even if they weren't dating. He still felt like he was somehow cheating on his feelings for Ashton by pretending to show some type of interest in this character. 

"Question: do you know where the baby carrots are?" Luke asked casually after heavily sighing. 

"Oh, yeah. I'm in the way of them. Sorry," the cute boy said with a shy smile as he backed out of the way. His brown eyes met Luke's blue ones and the blonde almost fell over in shock of how strapping the kid looked. "Is everything okay...?"

Luke knocked himself out of his trance. "Oh, um, yeah. Everything's fine. It's just, um, you're really attractive."

Luke was surprised at his semi-confident response. He didn't think that he would ever say that to a hot guy - including a stranger. The attractive boy looked at him, his cheeks flushing a light shade of pink as he looked down at the floor. 

"Uh, thanks. You're pretty cute yourself," the boy complimented back shyly. "I'm Ocktober, but you can call me Toby."

"I'm Luke," Luke greeted. He glanced over to his family that was watching from afar, Ben especially. "Are you busy tonight? My family and friends are having a bonfire at our cabin and I think it would be cool if you showed."

Toby's eyes lit up within an instant, obviously happy that Luke had asked him to go somewhere with him, despite having met him literally minutes ago. Toby nodded and Luke gestured for his hand as Toby grabbed a pen from his pants pocket. Luke wrote down the information in blue on the boy's hand. 

"I'll see you tonight, yeah?" Luke said, giving the blue pen back to Toby. 

"Most definitely. See you, Luke," Toby bid goodbye. 

Luke walked back to his brothers and mother with a satisfied grin on his face. His mother was smiling proudly while Jack and Ben looked at him so dumbfounded. Luke threw the bag of baby carrots into the cart even though they didn't need them and waited for the three to continue moving through the grocery store, but it wasn't happening. 

"What the hell did you just do?" Ben asked bluntly. 

"He seemed like he liked you!" Liz claimed excitedly. 

"I got him to come over for a bonfire, so you know what we're going to be doing tonight," Luke told her.

"Wait, did you just ask a guy out, Luke? A guy?" Jack asked, just as lost Ben was. 

"Well, it's not a date technically since there will be other people there," Luke told the two. 

"You do know that it's a guy. A guy that you and mum think is cute," Jack pointed out. 

"Yeah. I know it's a guy."

Luke looked at Ben and it was like a light bulb had decided to turn on. "Are you gay, Luke?"

Liz glanced down at her son, a smirk on her face. Luke looked away from his mother and at his two older siblings. "Yes, I am. If you have a problem with that, that sucks because I can't change. Even if I could, I wouldn't because I'm happy this way."

Ben and Jack didn't say anything as they continued to look at their younger brother, not sure if what he was saying was real or not. "You're seriously gay? This isn't some joke that you and mum are playing on us?"

"No. I'm legit gay," Luke answered. 

"What about all the times you told us about girls and shit?" Jack asked.

"I never felt anything towards girls. Yeah, they were pretty, but I never got turned on by their looks or anything. Thinking back on it, I found guys to be more attractive than anything," the blonde explained to the two brothers. 

"How long have you known?" Ben asked. 

"Not that long actually. Ashton actually brought it to my attention," Luke pointed out. 

"Ashton? As in that little fucker that screwed you over by lying to you about basically everything?" Ben asked. 

"That would be the one," Luke said with a bit of hesitation. 

"Out of all people, why would you listen to him?" Jack asked. "Why are you even talking to him again?"

"It's a long story that I don't want to get into," Luke told the two. "It doesn't even matter. This is who I am. I hope you guys can accept me for that."

The two stood quietly as they gawked at their younger brother. Luke expected them to stare at him as if he were some zoo animal. He also half-expected them not to accept him anymore. He couldn't begin to imagine either Jack or Ben being proud that they had a gay brother. Why would they be? 

"Boys, are you okay?" Liz asked her two eldest. "Please tell your brother something."

"I mean, I still love you for what you are. It's a little weird knowing that you like it in the ass, but I think I can manage to look past it," Jack shrugged after a minute. 

"Please, does he look like he'd bottom? He's a Hemmings. We're the doms," Ben pointed out, slapping Jack's shoulder playfully. Ben looked to his young sibling with a smile on his face. "Of course I accept you. Your my little brother. It's not like you changed completely. You just like dudes. It's actually probably smarter to be gay. There's less drama and whining. I'm jealous, bro."

The four of them all chuckled at Ben's little statement before they continued shopping. As they walked throughout the aisles, Luke felt the huge weight that was on his shoulders slide off completely. It was a relieving feeling that he didn't think that he would ever have the pleasure of experiencing. 

\----

"The Irwins were a bit hesitant on coming, but they're coming over. I told them to bring Ashton," Liz told Luke. "Is that alright?" 

"Yeah, mum. I told you to," Luke chuckled.

"Right," Liz said. "They'll be here within ten minutes, so why don't you get in contact with the grocery store boy and make sure that he's still willing to show."

Luke grabbed out his phone to call the boy that he had given his information to earlier. He tapped on the boy's contact and sent him a quick text. Now that Luke was out to his brothers, he didn't really want to pursue anything with Toby. While the boy was attractive, Luke was more attracted to Ashton than anyone and he didn't want to ruin his chances. Nor did he want to break an innocent boy's heart because he was too scared to tell him that he didn't have an interest in him like that.

"Is he still coming?" Liz asked, quickly dusting the coffee table. 

"Yeah. He said he'd be here in about fifteen to twenty minutes," Luke told her. 

"Great. Now go help your father get the fire started," his mother instructed. 

Luke did as his mother told him and went outside to the bonfire pit. Andy was putting an armful of logs into the pit when he spotted his son walking towards him. "Hey, son. Did you help your mother?"

"Yeah. She told me to come out here and help you next," Luke told him. 

"Well, you can light the fire, I suppose. The gas is right there," Andy told him, gesturing towards the gas bottle. 

As Andy went to get the box of matches, Luke grabbed the gas and began to drench the fire wood in perfect circles so it would start nice and strong. It was something he learned in the scouts when he was seven. For some reason, he still remembered it. It was somewhat useless, but at least he learned something from his year long boy scout career. 

Andy came back and handed him the match box. Luke set down the half-full bottle of gas - three feet from the fire to prevent any wildfires - and grabbed out a small stick. He began to strike it across the flint surface, ending up throwing exactly three lit matches into the pit. 

"Hey, guys! It's good to see you!" Andy yelled from behind Luke. 

The blonde turned around to see Ann and John Irwin walking across into their yard with Harry and Lauren trailing behind them. They smiled at the two Hemmings generations. "Hello. Ashton will be over in a little bit. He's finishing the dishes."

Luke smiled but didn't say anything. He knew immediately that it was going to be awkward between the two when Toby were to show up and act like he was interested in Luke. Luke didn't mind that someone as good looking as Toby was interested in him, but he didn't want Toby. He wanted Ashton. 

Interrupting his thoughts, Liz came out of the cabin with s'mores supplies in her arms and Calum and Michael following behind her with the pudgy pie makers. Luke had told the two about Toby and his issue with not even being interested in him and the two wanted to help, but didn't have enough experience themselves to give him any good advice on how to let Toby down easily, even if they didn't know each other. 

"Luke, darling, you have a visitor upstairs," Liz said with a smile. 

Michael and Calum gave him a sympathetic smile as Luke closed the box of matches and bounded up the deck stairs. When he got in the house, he saw Toby standing in the living room awkwardly. Immediately when he saw Luke, the boy smiled. 

"Hey, Luke," Toby greeted. "I was afraid that I had gotten the wrong house."

"Oh, definitely not. I'm here," Luke said with a cheeky smile. "Follow me. The fire's out back."

Luke led Toby through the house and saw that the fire was burning nicely. Instead of Toby walking behind Luke, the boy quickly started walking next to him, closer than he should've been. As uncomfortable as Luke felt about it, he didn't say anything and just let it happen. When he looked up to the fire, he saw two open chairs...which were next to Ashton. That made Luke's heart drop to his stomach. The look that Ashton was giving him was the most heartbroken one that Luke had ever received. 

Luke instantly wanted to kick Toby out. He didn't want to see Ashton that heartbroken over something that wasn't even real or had any chance to even be real. But just as Luke was going to tell Toby that he should go or something bullshitted like that, he saw the cutest smile and everything on Toby's face. It was something that he couldn't turn down.

Luke wanted to just disappear right then and there. 

\----


	31. Epilogue

If Luke didn't normally feel awkward to the point of discomfort, but there was a first time for everything. Not only that, but he felt like he was the biggest dick in Australia. On one side of him, he had Toby flirting with him and trying to be touchy-feely with him. On the other side of him, he had Ashton, who wasn't giving him the time of day other than being a complete ass towards him. Luke didn't know what to do. He didn't want to be a jerk to Toby because the boy was harmless and technically, Luke had led him on. But at the same time, he wanted to get Ashton back on speaking terms with him. It was like he was almost jealous of Toby.

"Luke, are you okay?" Toby asked, looking at him in concern.

"Yeah. I'm all good. Just a bit tired. How about you? Are you okay? Having a fun time?" Luke asked, trying to change the subject.

"I mean, I guess. I was just wondering if you still wanted me here. You're not acting like it," Toby pointed out.

"No, no. I do, really, Toby. As I said, I'm a little tired," Luke lied. He didn't want Toby there. He wanted it to just be the normal crew. He wanted Ashton to stop acting like a stuck up jackass.

"Luke, have you introduced everyone to your friend?" Liz asked when she was done having her conversation with Anne Irwin.

Luke felt his eyes widen. He didn't want to introduce any of them to him because this was going to be the only time that they were ever going to see him. "Um, I actually haven't. Everyone, this is Ocktober, but he likes to be called Toby. Toby, this is my mum Liz, my dad Andy, Anne Irwin, John Irwin, my brothers Jack and Ben, Michael, Calum, and this is Ashton."

"Hello. It's great to meet you all," Toby said with a smile. "Thank you, Andy and Liz, for letting me join your bonfire tonight. It's a pleasure."

"Well, thank you for showing up tonight, Toby! Anytime you want to come over, you just let Luke know," Liz claimed, a little too enthusiastically for Luke's liking. Also, it was something that Luke didn't want Toby to know.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom. Feel free to mingle, Toby," Luke told him quickly, hopping up from his chair.

Luke wanted to hide in his room again. He didn't like the situation that he was in and was kicking himself for even talking to Toby earlier in the day. Sure, the kid was kind and everything, but Luke knew that Ashton had a crush on him. Both of them had feelings for each other, so bringing Toby into the mix most likely made Ashton feel like he was being replaced or that Luke was just out to break his heart because he hadn't said yes to being his boyfriend. That wasn't the case at all and Luke just hoped that Ashton wouldn't think like that.

The blonde leaned against the cool counter that was upstairs as he contemplated staying there for the remainder of the night or until Toby got bored and went home. That was when he heard footsteps on the porch stairs, causing Luke to quickly grab a cup from the cupboard and start filling it with water so it didn't look like he was just standing there like he actually had been. When the door opened, he saw that it was Ashton. The boy locked eyes with him for a quick second before averting.

Without a word to Luke, Ashton went over to the bag of chips and started pouring more on his plate. Luke wanted to say something to him, but he didn't know what. It didn't matter what he would say because Ashton would still give him the cold shoulder and he would only feel like he was a fool.

"Hey, Ashton," Luke said shyly, figuring small talk was worth a shot.

"So, I'm guessing he's your boyfriend now?" Ashton asked. The tone in his voice was the calm before the storm tone. The one that Liz used when she was upset with Luke but was trying to act like she wasn't. Luke hated that tone.

"No, he's nothing but an acquaintance. If that, really," Luke told him. He wasn't going to lie to him. Not only that, but he was going to try and make it sound like he actually liked Toby. The last thing that Luke wanted was for Ashton to think that he no longer had feelings for him. 

"Just an acquaintance? Could've fooled me," Ashton scoffed, very clearly not sold on Luke's answer.

"What do you mean? I've barely spoken to him," Luke pointed out. 

"It's obvious that he thinks of you as more than an acquaintance. He's been trying his hardest to get into your pants all night and you've been somewhat responding to it, so stop telling me this shit that you don't like him. Why else would you have brought him around here?" Ashton told Luke, his voice getting more and more harsh as he continued talking. "I know that I said no to being your boyfriend, but that was for your own good. Just because I rejected you doesn't mean that I stopped having feelings for you, Luke. I didn't want you to rush into something that you're so new to. We would both end up getting hurt and I didn't want that for you or myself. But it seems that you don't give a shit about getting hurt or hurting someone else being that you've clearly found someone. So, quit playing the 'I'm so helplessly in love with you and that buffoon is nothing to me' card. It's not going to work on me and you're wasting your time. If you think you're making me jealous, you're not. I'm not jealous; I'm hurt and disappointed. I'm disappointed that you're just going and thinking that you need a boyfriend to prove you're gay. I'm hurt because I know that you can do so much better than some guy that you found on the street that you don't even know."

"I'm not playing any kind of card on you, Ashton! But if you're going to act all butt hurt over it, then fine. You don't even know Toby. At least he wouldn't lie to me about his parents beating him," Luke spat.

Ashton went quiet. "That has nothing to do with this, Luke."

"No, you know what? You are jealous. You're so hurt because you thought that I would wait for you or some sappy shit like that. I've got news for you, Ashton. I'm not going to sit around and wait on you to grow up and not be afraid of being in a relationship. I'm not going to listen to you tell me whether or not I'm ready for a relationship or not. In fact, you're the last person that I should be listening to because you are the biggest liar this side of Australia! You don't even know me, for Christ's sake! I'm just your neighbor and I don't want to be any-" 

Luke was cut off by Ashton shoving his mouth on Luke's. It was frankly the last thing that Luke expected to happen. In fact, he didn't even expect to ever kiss Ashton again. He didn't pull away, even though he was heated from the argument they were having. Kissing Ashton was actually exactly what he wanted to happen. 

"What the ever loving fuck?" 

Ashton and Luke broke apart to find an awestruck Toby, Michael, and Calum standing in the kitchen doorway. The three boys' mouths were dropped open in shock while Ashton and Luke just stood there with blank expressions on their faces. Luke tried to shake himself out of the whirlwind he was in to see Toby looking at him with a shattered expression on his face and tears in his eyes. There was no good explanation for what the boy had just walked in on. 

"I never thought that I'd see the day my best friend was almost balls deep in another guy's mouth," Michael finally said, earning an elbow to the ribs from Calum. 

"What are you doing, Luke?" Toby asked, his voice cracking as he started to break. 

"I was having a conversation with Ashton," Luke answered, feeling perspiration form on his hairline. 

"So, conversations now consist of sticking your tongue down someone's throat?" the boy asked, anger seeping its way into his voice. 

"Toby, you don't understand," Luke said sternly.

"You're right; I don't. I know that we haven't known each other for even a day, but you've been leading me on this whole time? Really, Luke? I didn't think you were a fuck boy, but it looks like I was the fool," Toby stated.

"I know that I led you on, Toby, and I am sorry. You see, I didn't...I don't know how to say this without sounding like a complete tool, but I only approached you earlier because I was coming out to my brothers and I was trying to make a point to them that I wasn't lying about being gay. I didn't mean to make you think that I was interested in you like that," Luke explained. 

"You're telling me that I was just a prop to you? Wow. That's even worse," Toby scoffed. 

"God dammit, Toby. You don't know anything about me and you expected an everlasting romance to blossom from this? I invited you over because I didn't know what else to do. Honestly, I was going to turn around and take back my offer right after I said it because I knew that it was a dumb idea. You're a stranger to me! Don't treat me like I'm some fuck boy that's cheating on you when we weren't anything but acquaintances and a crush to you. I have feelings for Ashton and Ashton only. He might not be my boyfriend or anything, but I care for him so much it hurts," Luke erupted. He wasn't going to let Toby make him feel small. "We were nothing, Toby."

"You can go and fuck yourself, Luke. It's fuck boys like you that deserve to be burned alive at the stake and rot in hell," Toby spat as he turned away and stormed out of the house. 

When the front door slammed shut, the remaining four were quiet. None of them knew what to say. Michael and Calum didn't even know what was happening. Ashton was confused, but was glad that Toby left. Luke was stuck in a hurricane of thoughts and confusion. He didn't know where he had gained that bit of confidence to tell Toby off like that. He was struggling to even understand what events had just occurred. 

"So, you guys kissed..." Michael spoke first, rocking back and forth on his heels. 

"Did you mean what you said, Luke?" Ashton asked, disregarding Michael's comment. "Do you still like me even with everything you said before?"

Luke gulped. "Of course. I didn't move on, Ash. I knew that inviting Toby here was stupid because I liked you and I felt like I was betraying you in some way. But I didn't think that you'd care since you said no. So I followed through with it and then this shit happened."

Ashton looked at Luke with wide hazel eyes. He didn't say anything and just kissed Luke again. The wordless gesture was enough confirmation of both of their feelings about each other. 

"This is something straight out of a fucking romance movie. God damn. I think I'm going to be sick," Michael interrupted. 

"Same, bro," Calum agreed. 

"Fuck you guys. You're just jealous," Luke scoffed with a happy smile on his face. 

It was then that Luke knew that his summer would turn out to be the best one yet. And he got to spend it with his two best friends and his boyfriend by his side. 

\----


End file.
